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Book ■ "1 313 

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COPWUGHT DEPOSIT; 



The Plain Man 
And His Bible 



WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FORMATION AND 
CONDUCT OF A POPULAR BIBLE CLASS 



Len G. Broughton, D. D. 

Author of 

The Soul-winning Church," " The Table Talks 

of Jesus," " Salvation and the Old Theology 

— Pivot Points in Romans," "Second 

Coming of Christ," "As a Man 

Thinketh," Etc., Etc. 



American Baptist Publication Society 

PHILADELPHIA 

BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 

ATLANTA DALLAS 



IBS 4-1 5 

:bt5 



Copyright 1909 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 



Published May, 1909 



UBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Gccies Receivec! 

MAY 13 Wd 

Copynant Entry ^ 



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CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. The Introduction 5 

II. How We Got Our Bible 12 

III. The Divine Arrangement of the 

Bible . . . ; 2"] 

IV. The Bible and Science 40 

V. Answers to Bible Critics 55 

VI. The Testimony of History and Ex- 
perience 71 

VII. The Bible Our Critic 80 

VIII. How TO Study the Bible 96 

IX. How TO Form and Conduct a Popular 

Bible Class iii 



THE PLAIN MAN AND 
HIS BIBLE 



THE INTRODUCTION 

THE Bible is the greatest book in the world. 
It is not the largest, nor is it the most ex- 
pensive. In fact it is the smallest and the 
cheapest book that the world ever saw, to 
contain the amount of matter that it does. Com- 
pared with the history of other religions, it is a 
small volume. It is also the cheapest book for its 
contents in the world. It can be bought for ten 
cents and upward. It is also the most popular 
book in the world. We are living in a book age. 
More books are being made now than ever before. 
Surely we are realizing what Solomon said three 
thousand years ago, " Of making books there is 
no end." 

When we look upon the bookshelves of the 
dealers and see the rapidity with which new books 

5 



6 THE PLAIN MAN 

are being brought out, we wonder sometimes what 
becomes of them; who buys them; who reads 
them; and what are they good for. Of course, 
many of them are good for nothing, but many 
of them are valuable. I do not agree with the 
talk that we hear much of in these days that all 
modern books are cheap in matter as well as 
price. Many of our modern books will be living 
when the authors are dead and gone. 

But the Bible goes steadily on as the greatest 
and most popular of books. It is greatest be- 
cause it treats of the greatest theme. Without the 
Bible we would have no knowledge of the most 
important matters that concern the soul. 

The History of Man's Moral Condition 

It is in the Bible that we get the history of 
man's moral condition. From the study of science 
we can get a history of most of the important mat- 
ters of life, but while we are doing this we are 
constantly reminded of the fact that nowhere out- 
side the Bible can we get the history of man's 
moral condition. Nature gives us no help. The 
earth itself is silent. The stars above us only con- 
fuse us. Everything is dumb in answer to the 
question " What is man ? " 



AND HIS BIBLE 7 

However, the Bible comes with the answer. It 
tells us that God made man in his own image. It 
tells us of man's fall. It tells us how the fall came 
about. It tells us that in the beginning God was 
pleased with man; they were together — God and 
man; that man turned away from God, and in 
this turning plunged the race into sin. The Bible 
is the only book which gives our origin and dis- 
sects our present moral condition, and also points 
out the way of triumph. 

The Revelation of God 

The Bible also is the fullest revelation of God. 
Nowhere else do we find such a revelation. To 
be sure, the psalmist says, " The heavens declare 
the glory of God and the firmament showeth his 
handiwork," but we naturally want to know more 
of God than we get by gazing at the stars. They 
record the greatness and the glory of God in crea- 
tion and government. The Bible brings God 
closer to us than that. As we study its pages we 
see the greatness and glory of God in the match- 
lessness of his love. There is nothing that re- 
veals this to us like the Bible, and there is noth- 
ing that we need to realize more than that " God 
is love/' We need it in the days of prosperity 



8 THE PLAIN MAN 

when everything goes well. It is not so hard for 
us to realize it then ; but when things go contrary 
to our interest; when our hearts and lives are 
shattered with sorrow^ or disease ; when our plans 
go astray, then we need something that speaks 
with no uncertain sound concerning the love of 
God. 

In giving his testimony concerning the Bible, 
when he was well-nigh one hundred years old, 
one of our pioneer preachers said, '' In the Bible 
I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 
I also hear him speaking to me. Sometimes it is 
true he speaks in solemn and awful tones, but 
again he speaks in accents of purest love. In 
nature I see the hand of God. Perhaps I touch it, 
but it is a cold hand. I almost shrink from con- 
tact with it. In the Bible I also see the hand of 
God, but it is a warm hand, and it is stretched 
down to me. I grasp it and it thrills me with life 
and love. In the Bible I see the face of God, and 
it is a face of wondrous loveliness ; as I gaze I feel 
the throbbing and warmth of his infinite lov- 
ing heart, beating in sympathy with fallen hu- 
manity." 

What a great testimony, especially when we 
know that it comes from one who spent more 



AND HIS BIBLE 9 

than sixty years as a hard student of this one 
book. 

The Bible and the Future World 

The Bible also gives us what we know of the 
future world. Without it the grave yawns in 
darkness before us, but the Bible comes to us at 
that dark hour and brings to us the light of hope. 
Nature, human philosophy, and science all fail 
to comfort us at a time when we most need com- 
fort. They fail because they cannot get beyond 
the present. 

The famous writer Sir Walter Scott was dying, 
and he said to his son-in-law, " Get me the book." 
" What book? " was the reply. " There is but one 
book," was Sir Walter's answer. Then Lockhart 
understood that he wanted his Bible. 

Most of us have felt the force of his conclu- 
sion. We ourselves have been in the darkness 
and the shadow of death, and we can testify how 
the words that we have treasured in our minds 
from the Bible came to us with freshness and 
comforted us. 

It is in the Bible that the mother gets the hope 
that cheers her in the dark days when children 
sicken and die. It is in the Bible as a telescope 



10 THE PLAIN MAN 

that she looks into the future world. No wonder 
it is such a popular book. The wonder is that it 
has not swept the world. 

The Way of Salvation 

The Bible also gives us the way of salvation. 
Without it there would be nothing to direct us but 
cold philosophy, which has always failed. The 
Bible takes us as we are, alienated from God, 
ever tending toward sin, and reveals to us the 
atoning Saviour, satisfying the demands of God 
and bringing us back into harmony with his will. 
The Bible is full of the Christ that saves. From 
Genesis to Revelation everything breathes of him. 
Not every letter or every sentence, but the spirit 
of every chapter. Everywhere we turn in the 
Bible we see a light pointing to Christ as the 
remedy for sin and the salvation of the sinner. 

A Guide to Life 

But the Bible is not only a guide to salvation. 
It is a guide to life. We make a mistake if we 
fancy that the Bible is altogether a light into the 
future world. It is a light to guide our feet in 
the way of living. There is no such other code 
of ethics that the world has ever seen, It em- 



ANDHISBIBLE II 

bodies the sublimest principles that the world 
ever sought to establish. 

The fact is, it cannot be described. When we 
attempt in a short space even to epitomize the 
place of the Bible we find ourselves staggered. 
We are like the little boy who was born blind 
and lived in that condition several years. At 
last an operation was performed, and afterward 
the light was let in slowly to his eyes. As soon 
as it was possible his mother led him out of 
doors and uncovered his eyes, and for the first 
time he saw the sky and the earth. " Oh, 
mother! why didn't you tell me it was so beauti- 
ful?" he cried. As the tears came to her eyes, 
she said, " I tried to tell you, dear, but you could 
not understand, nor could I find words to de- 
scribe it to you." 

So it is when we try to present the Bible. We 
cannot find adequate words to describe it. Lan- 
guage is insufHcient. With our finite minds we 
cannot grasp it. We have to grasp what we can 
and wait for the light of eternity to reveal the 
extent of its blessing. 



12 THE PLAIN MAN 



II 

HOW WE GOT OUR BIBLE 

HOW did we get our Bible? Before an- 
swering this question I want to say that 
there are three classes of men attempt- 
ing to answer it: 
First, the class that denies that the Bible is 
what we claim it to be. They believe that what 
we call the Bible is merely a historic scrap heap, 
put together for the most part by very crude and 
unlearned men; that it is only valuable because, 
for the most of the period covered by it, there 
is no other history to rely upon. This class de- 
nies in to to that there is such a thing as the 
" word of God." 

Secondly, there is a class that admits that a 
part of the Bible is the word of God; they say 
that the other is the work of man. That part 
which they can easily reason out and have no 
difficulty in understanding they regard as the 
word of God. That part which is hard to under- 



AND HIS BIBLE 13 

stand — the mysterious — they charge is the work 
of man. 

Then, thirdly, there is a class that believes that 
the Bible as we have it is the word of God; that 
holy men of old were inspired of God to write 
for him his words to men, and that the Bible as 
we have it is the product of this God-inspired 
work. 

It will not be difficult for the reader to de- 
termine where we belong. However, it will not 
be amiss for us to affirm in the beginning that 
we belong to the last of the three classes named. 
We believe that the Bible, as we have it, is the 
word of God. 

The Age of No Bible 

It is interesting to note that prior to Moses, a 
period covering over more than one-third of 
man's history, the world had no Bible. Imagine 
it — the world without a Bible for twenty-five 
hundred years! It is hard for us to realize it, 
especially when we think of what the Bible is 
to the world at the present time; that it is the 
basis of our religion, our civilization, and our laws 
of government ; that it is the most universally read 
book in all the world; that it is more widely 



14 THE PLAIN MAN 

translated and more generally sought aiter than 
all the other books we have. How could we get 
along without the Bible ? The very thought sends 
a gloom over us. Life would be as the night with- 
out the stars. It is the basis of our govern- 
ment, the salvation of our society, and the solace 
of our hearts. What comes to us in the day of 
trouble, when the dark clouds hang low, with such 
sweetness and solace as the Bible? It stills our 
nerves in the hour of fear, and drives away the 
miasma that settles over the grave when we come 
to place a trusting saint within its cold embrace. 
How many a weeping mother, standing over the 
open grave which has just received all that is 
left of a babe that for months has nestled in 
her arms, has looked up through the light of the 
Bible and caught such a vision of angel spirits 
as to enable her to say with Christian fortitude, 
" The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, 
blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Oh, this blessed old book has directed the 
course of nations, formed our civilization, built 
our churches, schoolhouses, asylums, and hospi- 
tals ; and has been the comfort of the saints in all 
the ages past. How could we do without it? It 
cuts us to the heart when we sin, and then re- 



AND HIS BIBLE 15 

veals the oil of grace when we turn to Him who 
made it. 

The Age of Conscience 

But we must not forget that there was a time, 
a long time, when the world had no Bible. How 
do I know this ? First, because there is no record 
of any inspired writings before Moses. To be 
sure, there were holy men in those days, such as 
Noah, Abraham, and Joseph, with whom God 
frequently communicated. Yet we do not find 
that God ever inspired one of them to put his 
words into writing; nor do we find in any of the 
records of the world any trace of such writings. 

Then again, there is no reference to such writ- 
ings. All through the Bible there are references 
by prophets, priests, and kings to the writings of 
Moses, but never to any one back of him. 

In those days God communicated directly with 
individuals, who in turn communicated with the 
people. The conscience was the basis of his 
operation and the standard of judgment. God 
seems to have dealt directly with the conscience, 
and this whole period may properly be called the 
period of conscience. 

But conscience was not the permanent stand- 



16 THE PLAIN MAN 

ard of judgment. It could not be; for after all 
that is said about the conscience it is more or less 
a creature of education, warped and twisted by 
the environments of life. It holds the same rela- 
tion to the word that a clock does to the sun. The 
clock is a convenient method of obtaining the 
time of day, but it is only infallible when it is 
kept perfectly regulated by the sun. 

The man who follows blindly his clock with- 
out insisting that it must be kept regulated by the 
sun, will soon find himself living day for night and 
night for day. So the man who blindly follows 
his conscience without having it perpetually regu- 
lated by the word, will soon find himself living 
wrong for right. 

Beginning of the Bible 

So the age of conscience having prepared the 
way, God entered upon the work of giving to 
man the Bible, which was to place him first under 
law which, like conscience, was to do its work 
and then bring in the day of grace. We hear 
now and then of the failure of God to do this and 
that in his plan for man. We hear of the failure 
of the age of conscience; as if God tried to save 
man by conscience and could not do it. Then 



AND HIS BIBLE 17 

we hear of the failure of the age of law, as if God 
tried to save man by law and could not do it. 
There is no such thing as failure in any part 
of God's great plan. When man failed in Eden 
God had a plan, and that plan comprehended all 
the ages and periods through which the world 
has passed and will pass until the final consum- 
mation, and he has not failed in one whit. The 
age of conscience was to prepare man for the 
age of law ; and the age of law was to prepare man 
for the age of grace in which we are now living. 

To make possible the Bible, which was the be- 
ginning of the age of law, God called Abram and 
set him apart as the head of a great race. This 
was about two thousand years after man began 
his career, and for a period of something like fivQ 
hundred years this work of preparation was car- 
ried on, and then Moses was commanded and in- 
spired of God to begin his stupendous task. This 
was the first work for the sacred volume — going 
back to the beginning and giving a history of the 
creation and God's dealing with the world, and 
his promises, all of which finally culminated in 
the New Testament, where the promised De- 
liverer is revealed. 

This is the general history of the Bible which 



18 THE PLAIN MAN 

is a revelation of God's plan for the redemption 
of the race. 

The Manner of the Writing 

About forty persons, representing practically 
every station in life, were engaged in writing 
the Bible, and the time that it took to complete it 
was about sixteen hundred years, beginning about 
1500 B. C, when Moses began to write the 
Pentateuch amid the thunders of Sinai, and con- 
tinuing to about A. D. 97, when the Apostle 
John wrote his Gospel. 

At that time writings were preserved on stones 
and parchment and kept in sacredly guarded re- 
ceptacles. Prophets and teachers studied these 
writings to know of God's dealings, and to know 
of his will concerning the government of the race. 
Thus the Old Testament Scriptures and the New 
were originally formed, and these ancient manu- 
scripts were gathered up and translated into the 
language of the time. 

Om English Bible 

About one hundred years after the Old Testa- 
ment canon was completed, something like 130 
B. C., the first translation of the Old Testament 



AND HIS BIBLE 19 

Scriptures was completed. It was a Greek trans- 
lation, and was doubtless for the use of the Jews 
scattered abroad during the dispersion, who spoke 
the Greek language instead of the Hebrew. This 
translation was known as the Septuagint or Alex- 
andrian version. 

In the second century of the Christian era 
Latin superseded Greek, and hence a Latin trans- 
lation was made of both the Old and the New 
Testaments. While revising this version Jerome, 
a great scholar and a man of great piety, who had 
access to the original manuscripts, made a new 
translation of the Old Testament from the He- 
brew. This is known as the Vulgate version. 

This Latin version was England's first Bible. 
It was carried there by early Christian mission- 
aries when England was still a pagan land. Al- 
though it was a Latin version, it changed the 
whole of England's public and private life. 

For hundreds of years following this England 
was in the transition period. National wars and 
upheavals of every kind were constantly taking 
place. The Teutonic invasion introduced the 
Anglo-Saxon language, calling for another re- 
vision. However, this revision was never com- 
pleted. Finally, it was the plan of God, through 



20 THE PLAIN MAN 

William the Conqueror, for the Normans to take 
England in 1006, and with it there was a fusion 
of languages which resulted in time in the present 
English language, which has been the greatest 
language known to the world for the spread of 
the Bible. 

It was then that God's time seems to have come 
to flash his truth around the world; and in 1320 
John Wycliffe was born. It was the ambition 
of his life to put the entire Bible into the English 
language. It took him twenty-two years to ac- 
complish this, but what blessings are the result 
of those twenty-two years! Hundreds of copies 
were made, and they cost immense sums of 
money. So eager were the people to read that 
those who could not buy it would pay consider- 
able sums to be allowed to read it for one hour 
per day. Truly the word of God in those days 
was precious. 

Wycliffe did not have an easy task. The Ro- 
man Catholic Church became alarmed. They 
saw the Bible getting into the hands of the peo- 
ple, and of course they had always stood against 
that, and so they began to persecute Wicliffe. 
So enraged was Rome that forty years after his 
death they took up his bones and burned them 



AND HIS BIBLE 21 

and scattered the ashes on the river Swift, which 
bore them to the Avon and out to the sea. 

The Printing-Press 

So soon as the EngHsh language had made the 
way for the word of God the next step was 
taken. It seems that God had been waiting all 
these years and arranging that those two great 
events should come together — the translation of 
the Bible into English and the introduction into 
England of the art of printing. Close upon the 
same time that Wycliffe was translating the Bible 
into English, Gutenberg, of Mainz, Germany, was 
at work upon his new invention, and in 1450 the 
printing-press was made a practical reality; and 
one of the first uses given it was that of printing 
the English Bible. Oh, how marvelously God 
has wrought! It sounds almost like a fairy tale, 
but it is history. God was back of it all directing 
the world with a view of sending forth his word. 

At this time a number of translations were 
printed and scattered, but the first authorized ver- 
sion of the Bible was in 1536, during the reign 
of Henry VIII. This version was appointed to 
be used in all places of worship. In the meantime 
the Roman Catholics continued their opposition 



22 THE PLAIN MAN 

against the public use of the Bible. All sorts 
of persecutions were resorted to, and the coun- 
try was swayed to and fro by it, sometimes reject- 
ing the Bible, sometimes standing by it. Finally, 
James I called together fifty-four translators, in- 
cluding High Churchmen, Puritans, and the best 
scholars in the land, and set them to work ma- 
king another translation. They brought out 
what is now called the King James version of the 
Bible. It took five years to accomplish this work. 
In 1611 it was finished, and the King James re- 
vision as we now have it was given to the world. 
Since that time other translations have been 
made, which in some respects are better than the 
old King James; in others not so good; but the 
work of the translator will continue to be neces- 
sary as language undergoes evolution. It must be 
remembered that all language is a growth; that 
we are constantly coining new words and retiring 
old ones, so the Bible will ever have to be re- 
vised to keep up with the language for the time. 

How Do We Know ? 

So much now for the general history of the 
formation of our Bible. The question naturally 
comes to our inquiring minds, how do we know 



AND HIS BIBLE 23 

that these manuscripts from first to last have been 
properly preserved ? The destructive critic is ever 
ready with his answer. He says that we do not 
know anything about it, and that in the absence 
of knowledge the devil has slipped in some of his 
work. He is willing to admit that God planned 
and gave to the world a Bible which was to be a 
chart and a compass for the guidance of his peo- 
ple for time and eternity, but they assure us that 
this Bible is not as God gave it; that man and 
the devil have interpolated it, putting into it that 
which God never intended should be there. Our 
answer to the critic at this point is that he is lack- 
ing in the proper conception of God. To imagine 
God, all-powerful, all-wise, giving to man a Bible, 
a thing so necessary, without which there is no 
light, and then turning his back upon a w^ork that 
has cost so much, and letting the devil steal part 
of it and mar the rest of it with his interpolations, 
is too ridiculous to engage the attention of peo- 
ple for a single moment. To imagine that God, 
knowing the necessity for such a chart, and hav- 
ing taken so much time and pains with man to 
bring it about and make it possible, then that he 
should turn it over to man and the devil to be 
changed is absolutely ridiculous. 



24 THE PLAIN MAN 

I believe that God at the beginning planned the 
whole scope of the Bible, and that every step in 
the history of the race has been in accordance 
with his plan to bring about this blessed consum- 
mation; I believe that he inspired the holy men 
who wrote it; that he watched over it in its years 
of formation, and brought it forth when the time 
was ripe. I believe that he watched the copyists, 
the translators, and all, until to-day we have his 
blessed book, the very " word of God " to man. 

No wonder it has outlived its enemies. No 
wonder it could not be kept from public use. It 
can no more be confined than God himself can be 
confined. It is his expression ; it is his truth, and 
around it have gathered the strongest minds and 
the greatest characters that ever turned the pages 
of history. 

Many years ago one of England's greatest 
preachers had a talk with Mr. Gladstone, Eng- 
land's greatest statesman. It was only a short 
while before his death. The preacher said that 
he felt awed in the presence of this grand old 
man, so great and good he was. Their conversa- 
tion turned upon the Bible, and Mr. Gladstone 
said, " I have all my life been a student of the 
Bible. It is the greatest book that the world ever 



ANDHISBIBLE 25 

saw. No man or set of men could have planned 
it or could have written it. It is truly God's 
book." 

Pity the little man who thinks it a sign of in- 
tellectuality to stand up by the side of this grand 
old statesman whose name will be spoken as long 
as there is a human tongue, and speak lightly of 
the Bible, treating it as simply a bunching of inci- 
dents, collected and written by a set of men in- 
dependent of God. No man has known God who 
sneers at the Bible, for the Bible presents God's 
photograph to man. It takes the whole of it to 
reveal him. 

There is a story of a profligate girl ; a girl who 
had left her widowed mother and wandered into 
a life of shame. In her loneliness and sorrow 
the mother set to work to find her daughter, but 
to no avail. After a while a plan came to her 
which she proceeded to put into execution. She 
placed a photograph of herself in all the shelters 
for this class of women, thinking that perhaps her 
daughter might see it. Some time passed, and 
finally one night the girl did wander into one of 
those places, and seeing her mother's photograph 
on the wall she fell to her knees, saying as she 
sobbed, " Oh, that is my mother's face. Those 



26 THE PLAIN MAN 

are the lips that so often kissed these unworthy 
cheeks; those are the eyes that have wept away 
their luster over me! That is my mother! My 
mother! Surely she placed that there to remind 
me of her, and now I know she forgives me. 
Surely she still loves me and I will go home to- 
day!" 

O wayward child, wandering alone in the world 
of sin and darkness, looking for God and finding 
him not, let me present you with this photograph. 
Come to this old book, the book of your mother 
and father ; the book of the old church where your 
feet once gladly led you ; the book of the preacher 
who had prayed for you and pleaded with you. 
It is the book of God; his own photograph in 
which you can see his love. It is God's picture of 
himself, in his heart of love wooing and winning 
a lost world back to himself and to heaven. 

Father of mercies, in thy word 

What endless glory shines, 
Forever be thy name adored 

For these celestial lines. 



ANDHISBIBLE 27 



III 



THE DIVINE ARRANGEMENT OF 
THE BIBLE 

WE now come to consider the divine 
plan in the arrangement of the Bible. 
I do not claim to have worked all 
this out myself. I have gathered it 
from my own study and also from others, promi- 
nent among whom are Dr. A. T. Pierson, Dr. G. 
Campbell Morgan, Mr. Collett, Doctor Schofield, 
and Mr. Griffith Thomas. Their findings I have 
freely used. 

We never see the glory of God unless we see 
his plans. David in that beautiful Nineteenth 
psalm breaks forth, " The heavens declare the 
glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handi- 
work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night 
unto night showeth knowledge." Surely this is 
true ! But the man who looks up into the heavens 
and fails to see the plan of God in fixing the 
sphere of the planetary system cannot appreciate 



28 THE PLAIN MAN 

the glory of God. See how carefully he has done 
his work. Every star differing from every other 
star, yet all are alike in everything that is essen- 
tial ; every star fixed in its own circle and not al- 
lowed to leave it. How wonderful! What a 
mighty hand fashioned it, and what a mighty 
power governs it. Certain it is that " the fool 
hath said in his heart, there is no God.'* 

But not only do we see the plan of God in these 
things, but likewise in the smallest details of his 
creation and government. There is not a thing 
that ever received the touch of his creative hand 
that is not according to the most perfect plan. 
Look if you will at the wings of the butterfly. In 
their construction are the most perfect angles and 
lines that were ever seen. Every line and angle 
is so arranged as to form a complete whole. 

God has ever been careful about the preserva- 
tion of his plans. Not even a sparrow falleth to 
the ground without his knowledge, and even the 
hairs of our heads are numbered. All this goes 
to show God a great plan worker. The man who 
supposes that God, because he is all-powerful and 
can make and unmake at will, is not concerned 
about plans and specifications in creation and gov- 
ernment has failed to see God. 



AND HIS BIBLE 29 

And with the same care for his plans in the 
formation and government of the universe we 
find him forming the Bible. It is strange that men 
of good sound sense and reason can see and ap- 
preciate God's great and successful plan in crea- 
tion, and at the same time fail to see the same in 
the Bible. They admit the necessity for a Bible, 
and that God endeavored to meet this by inspira- 
tion ; but they do not see the success of it. The un- 
believing critical student sees a Bible mutilated by 
man. This is because he does not see God. It is 
ridiculous to think that in this the most important 
work for man, the giving of the Bible, God did 
what he never has done in any other line of work 
— operate without a fixed plan; for if he had a 
plan in the formation of the Bible, that plan would 
not be complete until the Bible was complete. 

Thank God, some of us have seen him, and have 
seen him as a great plan worker — one who in the 
beginning wrought out not only his great plans 
for the formation and government of the world, 
but also for the Bible. The reason why this fact 
is not more fully comprehended is because skep- 
tics do not know their Bibles. They study all 
about the Bible, but do not study the Bible itself. 
To see this great plan of God one has to begin 



30 THE PLAIN MAN 

at the beginning and reverently follow every step 
through its sacred pages, looking for God and 
God's plan, and when it is found the old book will 
shine with a new luster. It will have a new sa- 
credness, and God as its author will be worshiped 
with a new spirit. 

The Bible as a Whole 

We see the plan of God when we study the 
Bible as a whole, which is a good way to begin 
the study. Too many of us are content with 
studying favorite portions — a sort of hop-and- 
skip method. What we want, and what we must 
have if we are to get a proper appreciation of the 
Bible, is to study it as a great whole. Begin at 
the beginning and travel through it as one travel- 
ing through a great city — observing its main 
thoroughfares and points of interest, until the 
whole is comprehended. So is it with the Bible. 
We want to get a view of the whole of it that 
we may properly appreciate any part of it. 

Observing it in this way we will be impressed 
with some very striking facts. For example, 
we will observe that the Old Testament begins 
with the expression, " In the beginning God." 
This is just what we would expect. The Old Tes- 



AND HIS BIBLE 31 

tament is distinctly God's voice to man, and it is 
perfectly natural that the first line in it should 
announce God. 

Then when we come to the New Testament we 
observe that it begins with Christ — " The Book 
of the Generations of Jesus Christ." This also 
is perfectly natural. The New Testament is dis- 
tinctly to reveal Jesus Christ, and therefore it 
should properly begin with him. 

See also the planning of God in the ending of 
the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testa- 
ment deals with the matter of law. Man is tried 
by the stern letter of the law, and hence it closes 
with a curse. The message of the New Testa- 
ment is grace, hence it ends with a blessing. 

Observe also another fact concerning the be- 
ginning and the ending of the Bible. It begins 
with God and ends with man, and lying between 
these two personalities is what God has to say to 
man. If we divide the Bible in half we find our- 
selves at the eighth verse of the One Hundred and 
Eighteenth psalm, where we find God and man 
together. " It is better to take refuge in God than 
to put confidence in man." How significant this 
is ! I do not say that it was God's design, and yet 
I do say that it is striking that God and man, 



32 



THE PLAIN MAN 



standing, one at the beginning and the other at 
the end, should meet in the exact center. 

Attention has been called to the divine plan in 
the destructive work of the devil at the beginning, 
and the constructive work of Christ at the end : 



In the b e g i n n i n g — God 
created the heavens and 
the earth. 

Satan enters to deceive. 



Man leaves God, to run his 

race alone. 
Sin, pain, sorrow, death. 

Earth cursed. 

Tree of life — man driven 
away. 

Man hiding from God. 

Paradise lost. 

First Adam failed and lost 
all. 

First man attempts to clothe 
himself. 

Woman taken from man's 
open side. 

Marriage of a sinless man 
to a sinless wife. 

Earth destroyed by water. 

]\Iany tongues causing con- 
fusion. 



At the end — new heavens 
and new earth. 

Satan cast out that he may 
deceive the nations no 
more. 

Christ leaves God to save 
man. 

No more death, neither sor- 
row, nor crying. 

No more curse. 

Tree of life, with right to 
eat of it. 

God dwelling among men. 

Paradise regained. 

Last Adam, " He shall not 
fail." 

Second man clothing us. 

Another side opened — the 

church formed. 
Marriage of the Lamb. 

Earth destroyed by fire. 
Many tongues bringing 
blessing. 



ANDHISBIBLE 33 

The first miracle in the Old Testament is sig- 
nificant. In the Old Testament the first miracle 
recorded is that of Moses turning water into 
blood, which was a type of death and was in keep- 
ing with the whole spirit of the law. In the New 
Testament the first miracle performed by Christ 
was turning water into wine, which was a type of 
life, joy, and strength. 

The first question in the Old Testament is God's 
call for man, "Where art thou?" The first 
question in the New Testament is man's call for 
God, "Where is he?" 

Surely these things have not occurred by acci- 
dent. Back of them there must have been a divine 
plan. 

The Plan of the Trinity 

But nowhere in the Bible do we see greater 
evidence of a divine plan than in the prominence 
given the Trinity. Everywhere attention is called 
to the Holy Trinity — God the Father, God the 
Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Man himself is 
represented as a trinity — body, soul, and spirit. 
The enemy of man is represented as a trinity — the 
world, the flesh, and the devil. 

Temptation is represented as presenting itself 



34 THE PLAIN MAN 

in the form of a trinity. There is the lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It 
is significant that the two great temptations, the 
one of our foreparents and the other of Christ, 
were in keeping w4th this trinity of temptation. 
The temptation in Eden : 

The tree was good for food — " The lust of the 
flesh." 

The tree was pleasant to the eyes — " The lust 
of the eye." 

A tree desired to make one wise — " The pride 
of life." 

In Christ's temptation in the wilderness we see 
the same order: 

" Command this stone that it be made bread " — 
" Lust of the flesh." 

" The devil showed him all the kingdoms of 
the world "— " Lust of the eye." 

" Cast thyself down hence, for he shall give 
his angels charge over thee " — " Pride of Life." 

Again, trinity is seen in the personalities of evil 
— the devil, the beast, and the false prophets. 
And against those we also have the strength of 
God — faith, hope, and charity. 

These do not seem to me to be accidental ar- 
rangements. They are bound to be the product of 



AND HIS BIBLE 35 

the divine plan. Take for example the Scriptures 
as a whole in their reference to the Trinity. The 
Old Testament reveals God the Father. The 
Gospels reveal God the Son. The Acts of the 
Apostles reveals God the Holy Ghost, and the 
Epistles give to us the full revelation of the whole 
Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

These are only samples of the way the Trinity 
is used to reveal the plan of God in the Scriptures. 
Had we the time, we might go on and show how 
almost every great fact in the Bible is a part of a 
trinity which has ever called attention to the one 
triune God. 

The Arrangement of the Books 

There is also seen a divine plan in the arrange- 
ment of the books of the Bible. In the Old Testa- 
ment there are thirty-nine books. In the New 
Testament there are twenty-seven books, making 
in all sixty-six. These books have a most won- 
derful arrangement according to their contents, 
and when taken together as a whole they show a 
wonderful development of the divine plan. For 
example, take the book of Genesis, the first book 
in the Bible. In it we have the beginning of 
things. The beginning of creation — of man, of 



36 THE PLAIN MAN 

sin, of sorrow, of salvation, the beginning of the 
family. In Exodus we have the book of the emer- 
gence and redemption. In Leviticus we have the 
book of the sanctuary and the atonement. In 
Numbers we have the book of the wanderings of 
God's people. In Deuteronomy we have the book 
of law and obedience. So we might proceed 
through the whole of the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures and see that there is a great but simple plan 
underlying and connecting all of these books with 
their various lines of teaching. 

The same can be seen in the arrangement of 
the New Testament books. Take the Gospels: 
Why the necessity for four Gospels? The critics 
have made great capital out of the fact that the 
Gospels are lacking in harmony. They have 
criticized them as if they were written by four 
men with the same purpose in view, which is not 
the case at all. 

The reason why we have four Gospels is very 
evident. Matthew wrote for the Jew. His pur- 
pose was to reveal Christ as the Messiah. He 
wanted to show wherein Christ fulfilled the Jew- 
ish idea of the Messiah. Mark wrote for the 
Romans. His idea was to reveal Christ in his 
power. The Romans could not appreciate any- 



ANDHISBIBLE 37 

thing that was not keyed to power. They were a 
power-loving people. Luke wrote for the Greeks, 
and his purpose was to set forth Jesus as the Son 
of man. John wrote for the world and set forth 
the deity of Christ, showing that he is the Son of 
God. And so all through the New Testament, 
as in the Old, each book has a separate and 
distinct lesson to teach, and is arranged with this 
in view. 

Christ the Center of All 

But the plan of God is nowhere more clearly 
seen than in the way the books and all the writ- 
ings of the Scriptures point to Christ. Just as 
it was said in the days of old that all roads led to 
Rome, so all the teachings of the Scriptures lead 
to Christ. The whole purpose of the Scriptures is 
to reveal Christ as the Saviour of the world. The 
law could not save. It never was intended to save, 
even in the days of the reign of law. Faith in the 
coming Messiah was essential to salvation. This 
is seen in the case of Moses and Joshua. Moses, 
although one of the greatest men that the Bible 
describes, could not take the people of Israel into 
the promised land. Had he been privileged to 
do so he would have upset the whole scheme of 



38 THE PLAIN MAN 

God. Moses stood for the law. He was its rep- 
resentative, and the law w^as never intended to 
save. It had its definite work to do, which was 
to lead to Christ, but no further. Joshua, whose 
name means " saviour," appeared as a type of 
Christ and led the people of Israel into Canaan. 

How clear this is in revealing God's plan in all 
this marvelous putting together of his holy book. 
Surely a proper comprehension of it gives glory 
and honor to Him who stands as its great central 
magnet. We shall never know how properly to 
appreciate Christ until w^e know the Bible. 

As I have come recently from a deeper study 
of my Bible, I have seen more of Jesus than I had 
ever seen before. He is really a new person with 
a new love and a new power. I have been very 
much like the woman who, when dying, kept 
saying in a low but distinct tone, " Bring, 
bring." Her friends, not knowing what she 
wanted, brought her various things that they 
thought she might mean. Finally she gained 
strength enough to say, " I do not care for these 
things. All I want is to see Jesus." Then she 
finished her sentence : 

Bring forth the royal diadem 
And crown him Lord of all. 



AND HIS BIBLE 39 

O friends, would you see more of Jesus? 
Would you know what he really is ? Then to your 
Bibles. There you will see him as nowhere else 
this side of heaven. 



40 THE PLAIN MAN 



IV 
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE 

EVER since the word science has been in 
use the infidels, critics, and skeptics of the 
Bible have resorted to it as a mighty fort- 
ress from which to hurl their blows at the 
Bible ; and despite the fact that they have been de- 
feated they come again, reasserting themselves 
with renewed energy and determination. At the 
present time they are doing this with great persist- 
ence, great force, and in some sections seemingly 
with great success. 

Recently one of the prominent English papers 
has said, ^' The world will never know the hurt- 
ful power of the efforts of certain men in the 
pulpits of this country to destroy faith in the 
Bible — and this they have done in the name of 
science." 

The same thing can be said with respect to this 
country. It is a recent thing that we have had to 
deal with such teaching in our own country, es- 



AND HIS BIBLE 41 

pecially in the South where faith in the Bible 
has always been so strong and unshakable. 

I know a woman who was once regarded as the 
most active Christian worker in her community. 
She was connected with every good enterprise 
of the church. She was especially conspicuous as 
a soul-winner. Her useful life was the topic of 
conversation in her circle. She fell into the hands 
of a pastor whose highest ambition seemed to be 
that of impressing the community with his learn- 
ing which, according to those who really were 
able to judge, he never had. His great theme was 
" the inaccuracies of the Bible as proven by 
scientific research." During his ministry it was 
said by those who watched him closely that he 
talked far more about science than anything else. 

This faithful young Christian worker, being 
a faithful member in her pastor's flock, soon 
found herself weakening in her faith in the Bible 
and, with this weakening of her faith, she began 
to let up in her Christian work. 

The result has been a change in her whole 
religious life. Her usefulness to the church and 
to the cause of humanity is almost a thing of the 
past. It is indeed a sad picture. I never see her 
but that I think of this folly. The fact is, I can- 



42 THE PLAIN MAN 

not find words with which to express my censure 
for a man who, pretending to know what he does 
not know, destroys the faith and the faithfulness 
of people who are under his influence. God pity 
the church that has such a man in its pulpit. 

What is Science ? 

But it is not my purpose here to deal with such 
instances. They are too numerous. I only mention 
this one that we may be prepared to deal with such 
infamous parading of spurious knowledge which 
is destroying the faith of our people. 

The first question for us to face is a proper 
definition of science. What is science? It is a 
Latin word which means knowledge — as applied 
to things about us; it is the knowledge of princi- 
ples. That which we know about things as we 
find them in the world around us. This is science 
— true science. When one speaks, therefore, of 
science he is supposed to speak of what is known 
and not what is supposed. 

For example, when one speaks of the science of 
creation, he is supposed to refer to what is defi- 
nitely known about creation, and not what some 
theorist has claimed concerning it. 

Let this fact be kept in mind as we proceed in 



AND HIS BIBLE 43 

the treatment of our subject. Let it be remem- 
bered that we are not to try the Bible by mere 
theories of science, but that which science has 
actually established — that which it knows. 

The Bible and Science 

The next question for us to face is the rela- 
tionship between science and the Bible. Do we 
find that the Bible is in harmony with science, or 
do we find to the contrary ? 

In answering this question let me say, first of 
all, that the Bible does not claim to be a text- 
book on science. Its aim is to bring man to God ; 
hence it deals more with the heart than with the 
head, but it is impossible to do this without here 
and there giving forth some scientific principle; 
so in part the Bible is a treatise on science. 

Accepting this to be true, the question faces us, 
Does the Bible, where it touches scientific matters, 
agree with the teaching of science ? If it does, it is 
a great strength to inspiration. If not, our Bible 
suffers. 

Now, my answer to this question is that the 
Bible agrees with all true science; that there has 
not yet been demonstrated a single settled fact in 
science, so far as I know, with which the Bible 



44 THE PLAIN MAN 

does not agree. Of course, I am referring to 
true science — that which is actually known and 
proven; not human theories and speculations in 
the name of science, for with these the Bible does 
not agree. 

Science Differing with Itself 

There is nothing more unsettled than science. 
Even to-day with all the accumulated knowledge 
that we have we find it in a state of vacillation. 
To-day it makes broad claims and to-morrow it 
repudiates them all and runs off after something 
entirely new. There are very few principles that 
science has actually and absolutely established. 
When we come to look at it they are so few in 
number that we are amazed at the slowness of the 
progress that the world has made in the develop- 
ment of knowledge. 

Let us take a few examples of this vacillation. 
First, let us look at the lack of unity on the part 
of science with reference to the age of the world. 
Mr. Collett, speaking of this, gives the following : 

" Professor Ramsay, after making all sorts of 
investigations, claims that the world has been in ex- 
istence fully 10,000,000,000 years ; Eugene Dubois 
claims that it has been in existence about 1,000,- 



AND HIS BIBLE 45 

000,000 years; Goodchild, seventy million years; 
Sir Charles Lyell, four hundred million years ; Dar- 
win, about three hundred million years ; Sir Oliver 
Lodge, about one hundred million years; George 
H. Darwin, about sixty million years; Professor 
Solas, about sixty-five million years; Lord Kel- 
vin, about twenty- four million years; Doctor 
Croll, twenty million years; Professor Tate, ten 
million years." 

Here we have a table presented by the most 
scientific men that the world has produced up to 
the present, which shows a difference between the 
lowest and highest figures of over nine thou- 
sand million years. What a revelation when we 
remember that each one of these men claims that 
he is speaking in the name of science. 

Suppose the Bible had been tried by Professor 
Ramsay's claim, and suppose it had agreed with 
him, what about the claims of Professor Tate, a 
man of equal reputation for scientific knowledge. 
We can at once see what a predicament we would 
be in if we tried to make the Bible agree with 
science instead of making science agree with 
the Bible. We would have to account for nine 
thousand million years, and what a howl that 
would bring from the world of critics. 



46 THE PLAIN MAN 

The trouble about the whole thing is that 
scientists are not agreed. This is demonstrated 
every day. The Bible does not say, nor does it 
imply, that the earth was created six thousand 
years ago. It does say that in the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth, and that is all 
that it has to say on the subject; and it is all that 
science has ever yet been able to settle. How 
stupendous is the ignorance of critics when they 
attempt to make a stroke at the Bible because 
it does not agree with science as to the age of 
the world. This is left entirely to the specula- 
tions of the scientists; and they have evidently 
done a great deal of it, for no two of them are 
agreed. Their conclusions range apart millions 
of years. 

Investigations in Egypt 

Again, we see a lack of scientific knowledge 
and agreement concerning the history of man on 
the earth. Mr. Collett calls attention to the fact 
that a few years ago an eminent scientist, Sir 
Charles Lyell, in his " Antiquity of Man," dis- 
cussed a discovery which had been made in the 
delta of the Nile. While boring there at a con- 
siderable depth there was found a piece of pottery. 



AND HIS BIBLE 47 

A careful calculation was made. Estimating ac- 
cording to the rate at which the mud brought 
down by the flow of the Nile was deposited, he 
decided that it had taken about thirty thousand 
years for the deposit over this pottery to form, 
which proved that man was on the earth at that 
time, and that he was at a sufficiently advanced 
stage to make pottery. This discovery created a 
great stir in the world. It was a direct blow at 
the teaching of the Bible; for the Bible does 
teach that at least the present race of man began 
about six thousand years ago. We get this from 
Bible chronology. So followers of Mr. Lyell had 
their faith in the Bible shaken, and they argued 
that if it was defective in this part it might be 
defective in many others. But what must have 
been the dismay when this precious piece of pot- 
tery, which had been used to disprove the Bible 
in regard to man's history in the world, was car- 
ried to Rome and there recognized as a piece of 
modern Roman pottery, and the whole of Mr. 
Lyell's theory was repudiated at once by the 
world of science. 

Suppose the Bible had agreed with this dis- 
covery. What would have been the result when 
the real truth was known? There would have 



48 THE PLAIN MAN 

been a discrepancy of twenty-five thousand years 
to account for. 

But this same author calls attention to the fact 
that this is not the only sensation created by this 
same great scientist. He made a study of Niagara, 
and proved to the satisfaction of the scientific 
world that, according to the rate at which the 
great rock over which the waters pour in such a 
mighty torrent had worn away, that the falls had 
been in existence for thirty-five thousand years. 
But what about that theory to-day? The scien- 
tific world repudiates the claim of Lyell, and de- 
clares that the rate is three times as great as that 
estimated by him, and the falls is, therefore, only 
about seven or eight thousand years old. 

Here is another great scientific fallacy ex- 
ploded : In the Delaware River, in our own coun- 
try, some years ago there was found in a bed of 
gravel, said to belong to the great ice period, a 
quantity of flint implements. This was taken as 
proof positive that man was on the earth long 
before the time when the Bible represents his 
beginning. This also created a great stir. Hun- 
dreds and thousands of skeptics were made by 
this discovery. Science declared that the find was 
genuine, and that the date fixed by them for the 



ANDHISBIBLE 49 

use of such implements and the place where they 
were found showed beyond the shadow of a 
doubt that there was a race of men on earth be- 
fore Adam, and that they inhabited our own coun- 
try. What a great discovery this was, to be sure ! 
Every little so-called scientist in the country used 
it as a dissecting knife to tear up the old Bible. 
But what about it to-day? Has it stood the test 
of investigation? Recent investigation of the 
place has shown that those implements did not 
come from ancient undisturbed gravel, but from 
a lot of loose material in the place where Ameri- 
can Indians lived, and that the great discovery of 
prehistoric implements was nothing more nor less 
than flints used by Indians. The whole theory 
has been exploded, and not a scientist in the world 
can be found to even speak about it, much less 
claim it. 

The Age of Writing 

Again, there is a lack of unity in scientific 
teaching concerning the age of writing. Much 
has been made out of this by scientists in their 
efforts to show the falsity of the Bible. They 
have maintained that writing was not known until 
long after the age in which Moses lived, hence 



50 THE PLAIN MAN 

that the declaration in the Bible that Moses wrote 
certain things is not true; and not only so, but 
that Christ, in declaring that Moses wrote these 
things, was suffering from the limitations of the 
knowledge of his time. This claim has attempted 
to do two things. First, it has attempted to de- 
stroy inspiration; secondly, it has attempted to 
destroy the deity of Christ. 

But what about it ? There is to-day in the Brit- 
ish ^luseum abundant evidence that these claims 
are unfounded in any part. There in the British 
Museum are to be seen writings upon stone and 
the like, of a time five or six hundred years before 
Moses. Indeed, writings have been discovered 
that date back to the days of Abraham. The 
scientists, therefore, have given up this point and 
no longer harp on it. Of course the little scien- 
tists that we have around who know no better are 
still talking it, but in real scientific circles it is no 
longer referred to. 

Jonah and the Whale 

Again, the so-called scientists have fed the 
world of skeptics with their ridicule of the Bible 
story of Jonah and the whale. They assure us 
that the whole story is a fabrication, because the 



ANDHISBIBLE 51 

throat of a whale is not large enough to admit 
a man. Many little try-to-be scientists in the 
pulpits have made great capital out of this criti- 
cism. Some of them have gone so far as to claim 
that the whale w^as a boat, a sailboat, which bore 
the name of Whale, and that this little sailboat 
came along about the time Jonah was floundering 
around in the sea and picked him up. 

But what of the real facts? In the first place, 
the Bible does not say that Jonah was swallowed 
by a whale. The record says that the Lord pre- 
pared a great fish to swallow Jonah. The word 
translated whale in the New Testament should 
properly be translated " a great fish." But never 
mind about that ; it has been clearly demonstrated 
that even a whale could swallow a man. One of 
the greatest authorities in the world — a man who 
has spent most of his life catching these great 
monsters — declares that the idea of a whale's 
throat being incapable of admitting a man is 
the result of gross ignorance. He says further 
that on one occasion he found in the stomach of a 
whale a shark fifteen feet long. He further states 
that it is always true that when a whale is dy- 
ing it vomits the contents of its stomach. This is 
admitted as unquestionable by scientific men, and 



52 THE PLAIN MAN 

yet it was at one time the great slogan of the 
critics for destroying the integrity of the word 
of God. 

The Falsity of Evolution 

The theory of evolution has also been a great 
weapon in the hands of the so-called scientific 
critics of the Bible. They have claimed that the 
world is the product of evolution ; and that man is 
also a product of evolution ; that somehow in the 
beginning there was a bit of protoplasmic sub- 
stance that began to revolve, and that this con- 
tinued until the earth, the planets, and all that is 
on them was formed. Their biggest capital was 
made out of the evolution of man. This they used 
to disprove the Bible's accounts of the creation. 
Oh, the great army of unsettled men made by 
such claims. For a long time the scientist held the 
Bible in ridicule because of this theory. But what 
about it to-day ? Has the theory of evolution dis- 
proved the Bible's account of man's origin ? Not 
in the slightest. On the contrary, the scientists 
have well-nigh all of them repudiated the long- 
boasted claims of the evolutionists concerning 
spontaneous generation and the merging of one 
species into another, such as man springing from 



ANDHISBIBLE 53 

a monkey, etc. At present the inclination of the 
scientific world seems toward involution rather 
than evolution. That is to say, that instead of 
man having come from a monkey he is going to 
become a monkey, or perhaps an ass, which is far 
more probable. The fact is, they know nothing 
about it, and most of them are frank enough to 
admit it. For example, Prof. George Darwin, the 
president of the British Association and the son of 
the renowned Charles Darwin, the father of evo- 
lution, has said in an open address: "The mys- 
tery of life remains as impenetrable as ever." 

A recent great authority visited the British Mu- 
seum and asked for proof of Darwin's evolu- 
tion theory, and he was astonished when told, " In 
all this museum there is not a particle of evidence 
that the theory is true. It is not founded upon ob- 
servation and facts ; it is but the concoction of an 
ingenious brain. The talk of the antiquity of 
man is of the same value. There is no such thing 
as fossil man. This museum is full of proof of 
the utter falsity of such views." 

The whole scientific world to-day is in an atti- 
tude of ridicule before the word of God. There 
is not a single point of criticism that cannot be 
met. Science has not succeeded in destroying any 



54 THE PLAIN MAN 

part of the Bible. Take even the story of Joshua 
and the sun, and there is abundant scientific evi- 
dence that at that exact period of the world's his- 
tory there is a lengthened day which has never 
been accounted for outside of the Bible. 

So with all of these efforts of would-be scien- 
tists. They have claimed more than they have 
known, and they have used their claims to en- 
deavor to break down and destroy the Bible. But 
they have failed. 

The Bible Lives 

The old Book still lives. It lives in history, and 
it lives in human experience. All that it wants to 
prove itself is a chance. Let it come into the 
heart of the individual, and it gives a peace and a 
comfort that nothing else can give. Let it into 
a nation, and it gives a civilization that nothing 
else has ever given. Let it into the community, 
and there is a life not to be seen emanating from 
any other source. Let it into the home, and it 
makes an oasis from which wells up water that 
will quench the thirst of the weary traveler 
through all the deserts of life. 

Oh, the blessed old Book! It cannot be de- 
stroyed because it is " the word of God." 



AND HIS BIBLE 55 



ANSWERS TO BIBLE CRITICS 

IT has always been true that in proportion to 
the triumph of Christianity has the world 
likewise triumphed. Take the religious his- 
tory of England from about 1700. The most 
notable thing in the religious teaching of the 
time was speculation and criticism of the Bible. 
This was especially true of Old Testament 
history and New Testament salvation. The pri- 
mal doctrines of grace were hardly thought of. 
The church service consisted of meaningless cere- 
monies and symbols. The preaching was that of a 
philosophical type, tinged with a smattering of 
science. The lives of church-members and people 
of the world were identical. The grace that saves 
and sanctifies was wanting. All sorts of im- 
morality was rampant. Every form of vice was 
popular. 

The law of God concerning sin and its punish- 
ment here and hereafter was a thing relegated to 



56 THE PLAIN MAN 

the so-called age of crude religion. No wonder 
the people reveled in sin. Archbishop Leighton, 
speaking of the church in that period, character- 
izes it as a " fair carcass deserted of its spirit." 

Isaac Taylor says of the church at that time: 
*' It was an ecclesiastical system under which the 
people of England had lapsed into heathenism, or 
a state hardly to be distinguished from it." 

Mr. Tracy, speaking of that time, says : " Such 
has been the downward progress in England that 
church discipline was neglected, and the growing 
laxness in morals was invading all the churches. 
And yet never, perhaps, had the expectation of 
reaching heaven at last been more general or more 
confident. The young were abandoning them- 
selves to frivolity and to amusements of a dan- 
gerous tendency." 

Thackeray, Massey, Macaulay, and other wri- 
ters compare the immorality of that century to 
Rome in the days of her filth and corruption. 

Lax and Liberal Faith 

But one need not confine himself by any means 
to this period of church history to show that with 
the lax and liberal faith of the church is to be 
found an immoral and degenerate society. We 



AND HIS BIBLE 57 

may go back in the history of rehgion to the day 
of Judaism and the same result is observed. 

From the day that Moses took charge of Is- 
rael to the time of the appearance of the promised 
Messiah there were teachers who stirred up the 
people with false doctrines and critical sneering 
at the word of God. The authority and credibility 
of the word of God was the ground of contention 
for that long period of time between the false 
prophets and the prophets of God. And it is a 
noticeable fact, one commented on by writers and 
commentators everywhere, that in proportion to 
the ascendency of the false prophets, the critics 
of God's word, religious infidelity accompanied by 
moral depravity was the order of life. 

The same truth stands out in the New Testa- 
ment order of teaching and tendency. Perhaps 
no clearer illustration can be found anywhere 
than that of Corinth in the days of the Apostle 
Paul. The tendency to drift from the clear, dog- 
matic doctrines of grace held and taught by him 
was so strong as almost to disrupt the church and 
corrupt the moral life of its members. Corinth 
stands out as the shining example, proving that 
with the lax belief in the churches and gross im- 
morality there is a direct connection. 



58 THE PLAIN MAN 

This has been true from the first dawn of God's 
revelation to the present day. There has never 
been a period in the history of the church when 
there have not been conspicuous examples of the 
damning effect of biblical criticism upon the re- 
ligious and social life of the people. The history 
of the Christian era is full of such evidence. In 
our day and generation the same relationship 
existing between revelation and life is seen. 
Wherever there is proclaimed, without wink or 
waver, the fundamentals of our religion moral 
and civil life are elevated. And where the reverse 
is true there is degeneracy and death. 

The Essence of Criticism 

But some one will ask, " Is there any such 
weakening in faith? Are there such teachers of 
infidelity to the Bible?" My answer to such a 
questioner is the main fact in this discourse to 
which I desire to call your attention. Unhesita- 
tingly, I say, "Yes." I wish it were not true; I 
can see no reason why it should be. Surely the 
history of the world in general and of the church 
in particular is enough to save the most tempted 
critic from his criticism. But as a matter of fact 
they are still abroad in the land, some of them in 



ANDHISBIBLE 59 

our midst. Many of them are good men — men 
with bright intellects; but, as any fair student of 
the Bible and the history of the church is bound to 
admit, they are men of bias who have failed to 
profit by the follies of their kind. 

The essence of all their critical vaporings hinges 
about the following : 

The doctrine of special creation should give 
way to the theory of evolution. 

The doctrine of miracles, the plenary inspira- 
tion of Scripture, the substitutionary atonement 
of Jesus Christ, and the supernatural leadership 
of the Holy Spirit should all give way; the doc- 
trine of miracles to the law of psychic phenomena ; 
the plenary inspiration of the Bible to that of a 
mere history of religion; the substitutionary 
atonement of Jesus Christ to salvation by char- 
acter; the supernatural leadership of the Holy 
Spirit to that of rationalism. Eternal punish- 
ment for the wicked must no longer be made a 
motive for leading men to Christ. 

These, I say, are the essentials around which 
cluster the criticisms of the critics of the Bible. 
They are not even men of the world who make 
them; they are the occupants of the pulpits of 
our churches — and not the churches of any one 



60 THE PLAIN MAN 

particular faith. It was once true in this coun- 
try that such teachings were heard only from 
the pulpits of a limited number of religious sects, 
conspicuously Unitarians and Universalists. To- 
day, however, they are held, and to some extent 
proclaimed, by men who occupy the pulpits of all 
our religious denominations, and the leading pul- 
pits among them. 

There is yet one link in the chain that binds 
critics together, and that is a denial of the deity 
of Jesus Christ. They all willingly admit that he 
was a great and good man ; that he was specially 
sent of God for leadership; that he was divine, 
but only as all good men are divine. 

All these views that are now being propagated 
by men who claim to be " advanced thinkers," are 
not advanced views at all; many of them are as 
old as the church. They are views held by the 
critics of the Bible plan of salvation from the days 
of the Apostle Paul down to the present time. 
They have been threshed out over and over again 
in different sections of the world and at different 
periods of time and by different kinds of teachers. 

There is not now advanced by one of these so- 
called " advanced thinkers " in the pulpit a single 
view with reference to evolution, inspiration, the 



ANDHISBIBLE 61 

work of miracles, the deity of Christ, or salva- 
tion by grace, that has not been advanced by 
men in the long, long ago. I must say, therefore, 
that it makes me sick to hear the claims of " ad- 
vanced thinkers " applied to these men of to- 
day, who are nothing more than phonographs 
through which the infidel and skeptical critics of 
all the past are still speaking. 

I have kept up with the recent utterances of 
these so-called " advanced thinkers " in some of 
our pulpits. I feel sorry for the masses who are 
duped by them. People who move in the business 
relations of life are not supposed to know the 
earmarks of biblical infidelity every time they 
see them, nor are they able to appreciate the fact 
that though one claims to be an advanced thinker 
he may be only dealing out chaff which has come 
from the threshing of other men. 

Apers of German Critics 

No country furnishes a better example for the 
failure of the destructive critics of the Bible than 
Germany. Every one of the modern claims of 
evolution, character salvation, and non-inspira- 
tion of the Bible has passed through Germany, 
and oh, what a havoc it has played ! To-day there 



62 THEPLAINMAN 

is no such thing as a fixed rehgious faith to be 
found in Germany. They do not know what they 
believe, hence there is no Sabbath and practically 
no conscience. 

This, of course, has not always been true of 
Germany. It was here that the great Reforma- 
tion was wrought out. It was here that primal 
Christianity once held sway; but alas, the itch- 
ing ears of the rich and the cultured must be 
tickled, and the pulpit to tickle them must be 
liberal ; hence the destruction of faith. 

Here is where our so-called " advanced think- 
ers " get their thoughts. They are " advanced " 
enough to be dead in Germany; for, thank God, 
though we are afflicted with them in this coun- 
try, and I am sorry to say more and more in the 
South, they have spent their day in the land of 
their birth, Germany. Professor Holtzmann, one 
of Germany's greatest teachers and authors de- 
clares, " While the radical criticism of the Bible 
is taking root in America, it has run its round in 
Germany." 

Now, my brethren, what are we to conclude for 
ourselves ? We have the history of the failure of 
the efforts to destroy the fundamentals of our 
primitive faith. We have seen how the efforts 



AND HIS BIBLE 63 

of the teachers of civiHzation, based upon science, 
have failed. We have seen how in the history of 
the race all efforts to explain away the authen- 
ticity, supernaturalness, and salvation of the Bible 
have resulted in the breaking down of the faith 
and retarding the progress of the highest and best 
civilization. What then are we to conclude ? 

IVill Destroy Progress 

First of all, we must conclude that such teachers 
are enemies to progress. Never mind their con- 
tention, never mind their claim. They may stand 
before the world as advanced thinkers ; they may 
occupy the leading pulpits in their various de- 
nominations; they may be writers of novels, or 
editors of great newspapers or magazines; they 
may be professors in universities, or teachers in 
great theological seminaries; but I challenge the 
whole of them to show that it is not true in the 
history of the world that periods of weakened 
faith in the accuracy of inspiration and revelation 
have resulted in arresting the progress of that 
which is noblest and best for the race of man. 

Let the history of Germany, France, England, 
and America speak. We do not call upon the 
church. Take secular history. See to this day 



64 THE PLAIN MAN 

the scars left by the canker-worm ; men who, set- 
ting aside God's declaration about creation and 
salvation, have attempted to set up systems of 
their own. This is all we need to-day to settle us 
in our view concerning the critic and the " ad- 
vanced thinker." 

Again, such teachers are in the way of salva- 
tion. Within recent years there has been con- 
siderable study concerning the failure of the gos- 
pel to grip the masses with its saving truth. The 
best minds in our pulpits and institutions of learn- 
ing have tried to solve it. Recently, light has 
begun to dawn and a solution is at hand. It has 
been found that wherever there is the slightest 
compromise between belief and unbelief, there is 
a corresponding failure to save. Salvation and 
biblical speculation and theorizing will not go 
together. 

The preacher, or church, whose time and talent 
are given in efforts to show up the so-called falla- 
cies of the Bible, and to explain away the super- 
naturalness revealed in it, is as dead as Hector 
when it comes to salvation. It cannot be otherwise. 
His kind has ever resulted in the arrest of salva- 
tion and all other progress. A faithless genera- 
tion has ever become a generation of vipers. We 



AND HIS BIBLE 65 

cannot get men to yield their all to one who is 
only a man. The only master of men is God. To 
look upon Christ, therefore, as anything else but 
God is to break the power that masters men. And 
when that power is broken salvation for the indi- 
vidual and the race is no more. 

Bible Critics and Revivals 

Here again we only have to look at history. 
The great movements of Wesley, Whitefield, 
Fletcher, and others evidence this fact. At that 
time the critic was doing his most deadly work 
in England. The fundamental doctrines of Chris- 
tianity were totally disregarded ; skeptics were tri- 
umphant ; the church was dead ; and the nation in 
disgrace. But, as Professor Townsend, of the 
Boston University, has recently said, " The com- 
mon people in both Great Britain and the United 
States were unsatisfied. They became tired of a 
drifting, beliefless, and corrupting church, and be- 
gan to cast about for something better, and God 
did not fail to provide something better. The two 
Wesleys, Whitefield, Fletcher, and others were 
moved upon and began to preach the primitive 
doctrines of Christianity. Men's hearts responded 
to the preaching; penitents smote upon their 

E , 



66 THE PLAIN MAN 

breasts, and asked what they must do to be saved ; 
the mining and manufacturing districts of Great 
Britain never before had experienced any such 
rehgious awakening." 

Never before in the history of the EngUsh peo- 
ple had there been such a stir. John Newton re- 
lates that in one week George Whitefield received 
not fewer than a thousand letters from persons in 
all walks of life, persons who had hitherto been 
satisfied with themselves, but at the time were 
conscience-stricken in view of their sins. Duke 
and duchess, prince and peasant, all bowed before 
the cross of Christ. The whole of the English 
aristocracy was shaken. Not only in England was 
this true, but throughout America as well. 

What a triumph for primitive Christianity ! The 
gospel that these men preached was not a gospel 
of liberalism. Speculations and efforts to apolo- 
gize for the blunders of the Scriptures never en- 
tered their minds. What they preached was the 
primitive faith of the church ; the Bible the word 
of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit; man a sin- 
ner; the judgment day; hell for the lost; Christ 
and his substitutionary atonement on the cross, 
the only Saviour from an endless hell ; sanctifica- 
tion of the believer ; and the baptism of the Holy 



AND HIS BIBLE 67 

Spirit. These were the doctrines — dogmas, if 
you please — of the great revival that put new life 
in the religion of the world. 

In this country men like Jonathan Edwards 
caught the spirit and began to proclaim anew the 
primitive doctrines of the church. Listen to him 
telling of the result: "The Spirit of God began 
extraordinarily to set in and wonderfully to work 
among us. And there were very suddenly, one 
after another, those who were wrought upon in 
a very remarkable manner. There was scarcely a 
person left unconcerned about the things of the 
eternal world." 

Doctor Townsend, speaking upon this fact also, 
has this to say : 

" It is a matter of history that men in the field 
and in the shop, and the women at home and in 
the social gatherings, were engaged m discussing 
the profoundest subjects of theology, instead of 
indulging in questionable amusements, or in gos- 
siping about their neighbors." 

The Critic is Doomed 

These facts have their meaning. The church of 
to-day must see it. Thank God, she is seeing it ! 
The Welsh revival, and the revival in Australia, 



68 THE PLAIN MAN 

England, and America, under the preaching of 
Doctors Torrey, Chapman, and Gipsy Smith, is a 
sign of what the Lord wants for the world. The 
message of these preachers is one of unflinching 
loyalty to the word of God, in all respects, and to 
the doctrines of the primitive church. God is do- 
ing as he always has done — he is placing his seal 
of approval upon it. Men of high rank, business 
men, who are tired of speculation and doubts, are 
coming out into the light of faith. 

Perhaps the most remarkable production of 
modern times is a book by the Right Honorable 
Arthur Balfour, of England, on " The Founda- 
tions of Belief," in which he sets up a mighty de- 
fense of the primitive faith of the church. 

Another remarkable contribution to old-time 
religion is a book by that most brilliant French 
essayist, Brunetiere, entitled " The Bankruptcy of 
Science." In it he literally flays the modern pul- 
piteers who, with a smattering of science, are 
posing as wise men, befuddling the people and de- 
stroying their faith. 

The Despised Cross 

My brethren, the day for these men is past. 
Thank God, the old Book still lives. Upon it the 



ANDHISBIBLE 69 

guns of the critics of all ages have been turned. 
Wherever it has been planted the devil has tried 
to destroy it. A marching army of self-appointed 
rectifiers of its so-called errors have gone wher- 
ever it has gone, but here the old Book stands to- 
day — from Genesis to Revelation — unsullied and 
true. True science, so far as it is known, is try- 
ing to make amends for its past blunders in criti- 
cizing it. The old Book has never been an enemy 
but a friend to scientific investigation. Often its 
friends have been grieved at the war that has been 
waged ; but, thank God, the old truth and the old- 
time religion that it fosters are in force to-day. I 
have seen it operate. 

In cultured centers, where its critics have been 
most numerous, I have seen the greatest evidences 
of moral degeneracy. 

I have seen other systems of salvation fade as 
the truth of the Bible is flashed upon them. I 
have seen strong men falsely taught come into the 
light of this revelation. I have seen them quake 
and tremble, and then kiss the cross that they have 
despised. 

I say to you that the foundations of our faith 
were never more secure; the preaching of the 
cross never so powerful. I have seen a vision; I 



70 THE PLAIN MAN 

have seen Him who said, " And I, if I be Hfted up, 
will draw all men unto me." He was robed in 
princely splendor. Angels winged their way to 
kiss him, while countless myriads bowed before 
his face. I looked in wonder, while back and 
above him I saw the secret — the cross of Calvary. 
And then I heard the choral song : " Worthy is 
he to receive honor and dominion and glory for- 
ever." O Master, it is enough. Only let me stand 
for the issues that flow from that cross. 



AND HIS BIBLE 71 



VI 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY AND 
EXPERIENCE 

IN dealing with this phase of our subject, we 
find so much matter on hand that it is hard 
to select that which is most helpful to us. As 
a part of the history of the world's move- 
ments, from the time that Adam and Eve were 
mated together in the garden of Eden down to 
the present hour, the word of God has been 
recognized as of supreme importance. 

It is true, of course, that for more than two 
thousand years God spoke to men directly, with- 
out the aid of the written word, but his words 
were none the less forceful. In all matters of life 
and government the word of God was authority. 

Beginning with Moses, as we have already seen, 
the plan of God was to reduce his teaching to the 
written and printed word, which finally culmi- 
nated in our Bible. Since that time no book — not 
even all the books — have played so important 



72 THE PLAIN MAN 

a part in the history of the world as the Bible. 

In speaking on this line Mr. Gladstone, Eng- 
land's greatest statesman, says, " There is no 
book in all the range of books that has had such 
influence in civilizing the world as the Bible. 
Surely, it is the word of God, and every part of it 
is important, for every part of it bears his im- 
press." 

In recent years Li Hung Chang, China's great- 
est statesman, is quoted as saying, " Whether 
there is anything in the Christian religion or not, 
the Bible has made an everlasting impression upon 
the civilization of China. There is something in 
it that tends to the elevation and advancement of 
mankind." 

These testimonies to any mind, even the most 
biased, are entitled to great weight, and they have 
it, whether acknowledged or not. 

Many will doubtless recall having read the tes- 
timony of Wm. J. Bryan concerning the Bible. It 
was given by him after making a tour through the 
heathen countries. It was given from the stand- 
point of a statesman and not as a religionist; for 
while he is a devout Christian, and adheres to the 
old Book with simple childlike faith, yet in this 
connection he was speaking simply as a statesman. 



ANDHISBIBLE 73 

" Everywhere I go," said he, " in these heathen 
countries I see the force of our Bible. Wherever 
the Christian missionary has adhered to it and ex- 
pounded it, there is seen distinct evidences of a 
growing civiHzation. The people are more 
thrifty, their lives more beautiful, and conditions 
of all kinds are improved." 

Certainly such a testimony from one so well 
qualified to speak is valuable. 

It Cannot Be Destroyed 

The Bible is the one book that cannot be de- 
stroyed. Infidels have written books, great books 
many of them, but where are they ? Where are the 
works of Hume, Voltaire, Bolingbroke ? No man 
reads them to-day, while the Bible is read every- 
where. In the lands of civilization, and where 
civilization has not yet gone, it stands knocking at 
the door ready to enter and shine forth its light. 
Effort after effort has been made to destroy it. 
Even as late as the reign of Henry the Fifth a law 
was passed in England against the reading of the 
Scriptures. The penalty attached was that all 
lands, chattels, and life should be taken. Readers 
of the Bible were regarded as enemies of the 
crown, and the most arrant traitors of the land. 



74 THE PLAIN MAN 

We can scarcely conceive of such a law when 
we look in upon England to-day, where the Bible 
is read and loved as in no country on the face of 
the globe. It shows that God is back of his word, 
and that he has planned for its keeping and pro- 
vided for its use, and woe be unto that nation or 
people that attempts to hold it down or prevent it 
from doing its God-given work. Individuals have 
suffered martyrdom in thousands of ways rather 
than deny it. I have recently been greatly stirred 
in reading over again the history of the martyrs 
of the mother country. How these men and 
women proved their fidelity to the Bible! We 
will never be able fully to appreciate them. They 
were true, even unto death ; ready at any time to 
give their lives for their faith. The Bible did 
this. No other book could have done it. In it 
they had learned about God and Jesus their Sa- 
viour. In it they had learned the precepts for 
right living and also of their home in heaven. 

A Martyr's Testimony 

A martyr had been tried and convicted of the 
crime of reading his Bible. The punishment was 
death at the stake. When the day for his burn- 
ing came he was found early in the morning 



AND HIS BIBLE 75 

kneeling in prayer in the old dungeon where he 
had spent months without being privileged to 
speak to a living soul, his meals being let down to 
him by a rope. But he was not despondent when 
they found him ; he was quite the reverse ; he was 
bright and happy. 

" Good morning," said he, as the guard entered 
to take him to the stake ; " I have had a delightful 
night, and I fancy now that you have come to 
give me my liberty." 

" Your liberty ! " shouted the guard. 

" Yes, my liberty," said he. 

" Well, I should think not. I have come to take 
your life." 

" Yes," he said, " I understand. I referred to 
the liberty of entering into the mansion of rest. 
I have just been reading, * Let not your heart be 
troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In 
my Father's house are many mansions. I go to 
prepare a place for you ; and if I go and prepare a 
place for you, I will come again and receive you 
unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be 
also.* " 

" You say," interrupted the guard, " that you 
have just been reading those words? Where did 
you read them? You haven't anything to read." 



76 THE PLAIN MAN 

" Oh," he said, " that is just where you are mis- 
taken. I read it in memory's Bible. The Bible 
is written on my heart." 

From the dungeon he was led to the stake, and 
the fagots were piled around him and then set on 
fire. A large crowd of exultant men stood 
around, watching the flames as they rose higher 
and higher. Not a word escaped his lips nor a 
sound of any kind, until just at the last he shouted 
in the words of Elisha when he saw Elijah going 
up in the chariot of fire, " The chariot of Israel 
and the horsemen thereof." 

In a time like that no other book could have 
produced such an attitude or brought such com- 
fort. 

The Bible as Literature 

But perhaps the most interesting part of the 
history of the Bible, at least to people who are 
interested in literature, is that part which it plays 
in the world of literature, and on this point I 
know nothing better than an extract from an ad- 
dress carefully prepared by the Rev. Dr. C. Al- 
phonso Smith, president of Davidson College. 
He says, " The Bible is a part of world-litera- 
ture. The Koran is literature, but the Bible is a 



ANDHISBIBLE 77 

world-literature. With the exception of the novel 
and the editorial, both of which arose in the 
eighteenth century, there is hardly a type of 
modern literature or form of modern discourse 
that may not be found in the Bible. Through- 
out your college course you will come in contact 
with no book whose purely literary claims equal 
those of the Bible. I yield to no one in my admira- 
tion of the classical literature of scientific achieve- 
ment; but in vividness and intensity, in eleva- 
tion of appeal, in the extent of her literary empire, 
and in the duration of her sovereignty, the Bible 
takes easy and secure precedence. The most ad- 
vanced nations of the world are the children of 
her fireside; the centuries themselves have been 
but handmaidens in her service. There is no 
modern literature worthy the name that has not 
felt her influence; there is no regnant people 
whose strivings she has not shepherded." 

Doctor Smith is not by himself in the estimate 
he places upon the Bible as literature. In the 
literary world everywhere are testimonies of its 
preeminence as a book of literature. 

Dr. Henry Van Dyke, one of the most dis- 
tinguished literary characters that we have to- 
day, has found more than four hundred direct 



78 THE PLAIN MAN 

references to the Bible in the poems of Tenny- 
son. Coleridge says of the Bible's place in litera- 
ture, " The intense study of the Bible will keep 
any writer from being vulgar in point of style." 
Ruskin declares that the Bible, to him, was the 
most essential part of his education. Surely such 
testimonials are not to be disregared when we 
come to make up our estimate of the Bible. 

Testimony of Prophecy 

But without doubt the testimony of prophecy 
is the strongest argument that we have for the 
genuineness of the Bible. Take the prophecies 
concerning Christ which are found in the Old 
Testament. 

There are no less than three hundred and 
thirty-three of these Old Testament prophecies 
that center in the person of the Messiah, and 
every one which relates to his first advent has 
been literally fulfilled. Look at some of them and 
then look at their fulfilment, and there will be 
found in them a testimony for the genuineness 
of the Bible that absolutely defeats the most skil- 
ful critics. 

Prophesying about Jesus the Messiah, here is 
an epitome of some of the things said : 



AND HIS BIBLE 79 

Isa. 7 : 14, born of a virgin; Micah 5 : 2, at 
Bethlehem ; Hosea 11:2, anointed with the Spirit ; 
Ps. 41 : 9; 55 : 12-14, betrayed by a friend; 
Zech. 13 : 7, forsaken by his disciples; Zech. 
II : 12, sold for thirty pieces of silver; Zech. 
II : 13, potter's field bought; Isa. 50 : 6, spit 
upon and scourged; Exod. 12 : 46, not a bone 
broken; Ps. 69 : 21, gall and vinegar; Ps. 29 : 
18, garments parted and lots cast; Ps. 22 : 16, 
feet pierced; Isa. 53 : 3, despised and rejected; 
Isa. 53 : 8, moved from court to court; Isa. 53 : 
9, pronounced guiltless by all; Isa. 53 : 10, 
bruised of God. 

How forceful this testimony ! Who can look at 
it and not know that back of it all is an all-seeing 
Eye that penetrates far into the mysteries of the 
beyond. Who can fail to see also the planning of 
an all-wise Mind, and the direction of an all- 
powerful Hand. No accident could have brought 
about the fulfilment of these prophecies. The 
men that wrote them had naturally no better op- 
portunity for seeing into the future than others of 
their time, but they were inspired. God held back 
the curtain that hid the future, and enabled them 
to see and write the things that he desired to be 
forever kept as a part of his holy word. 



80 THE PLAIN MAN 



VII 
THE BIBLE OUR CRITIC 

THERE are two classes of Bible critics. 
First, there is the critic who is, under 
God, devoting his highest scholarship to 
the work of reducing the Bible to the 
mind and time which it is to serve. This is 
helpful criticism, for it is very necessary that 
the Bible in its translation shall keep pace with 
the evolutionary progress of language itself. 
Then there is the class of critics at work upon 
the Bible to-day whose highest ambition seems to 
be to destroy all that is supernatural in the word 
of God. They make light of everything that does 
not measure up to their standard of reason and 
science ; and they leave out, as having no place or 
part in the word of God, all that is to them mys- 
terious. This last class of critics is that destruc- 
tive class which we have been trying to consider 
in the light of God's teaching. As I have pursued 
this study, more and more have I come to the 



ANDHISBIBLE 81 

realization that back of the word of God is a 
Master Mind, and that the word of God is the 
result of his planning, and not only the result of 
his planning, but of his protection ; for I trust that 
we have seen that the God who planned the book 
and who completed the book has also had his eye 
upon it, watching over it, seeing to it that the 
devil does not destroy that which cost him so 
much to complete, and seeing to it that man as 
the agent of the devil is not allowed to come in 
and tear it to pieces. To imagine God at work per- 
fecting and arranging and completing the Bible 
— and he must have completed it according to his 
plan — to imagine this, and then that he would 
leave it, is the supremest folly in the world. Do 
you think that, after he had done all this, he would 
turn his back on it and let the devil tear it to 
pieces ? Although we have had to pass so rapidly 
over many things, I trust that we have seen that 
the Bible, as we have it, is the very word of God. 
Now we will leave the critics of the Bible and 
study the Bible itself as humanity's critic. 

Our Looking-glass 

The first thing that I call you to note is this, 
that the Bible is our looking-glass. Take 2 Cor. 

F 



82 THE PLAIN MAN 

3 : i8: "But we all, with unveiled face reflect- 
ing as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as from the Lord the Spirit." Unquestion- 
ably, reference is here made to the word of God. 
It is the glass in which is revealed the glory of 
God. There is no other way for us to see the 
glory of God. To be sure, " The heavens de- 
clare the glory of God, and the firmament shew- 
eth his handiwork," but the full-orbed glory of 
God is not seen in creation nor in government. 
The full glory, the majestic glory of God, is only 
seen when we get a peep into the heart of God; 
and to get a peep into the heart of God it is neces- 
sary for us to go back to the beginning and find 
our way through the winding paths that lead all 
through the Old Testament Scriptures, some of 
them very circuitous routes; but when we have 
traveled them we come out at the manger, where 
the babe Jesus is found, God's first revelation of 
his great heart of love. There we get a peep into 
the heart of God. We get it nowhere else. Even 
then we have not seen the full glory of God. 
Until we begin at the beginning of that marvelous 
story of his life, and wind our way through those 
ofttimes rnystical paths that run through the gos- 



AND HIS BIBLE 83 

pel story of the life of Jesus, and finally come out 
at the foot of Calvary, there upon the summit 
stretched upon the cross is Jesus, dying; and 
there, in the dying agony of Jesus, is the final 
revelation of the heart of God ; " For God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him might not perish but 
have everlasting life." You get that nowhere else 
outside the word of God. Destroy your Bible and 
there is no revelation that God ever made of the 
fulness of his love and glory in Christ Jesus. 

It is not only that the Bible reveals the glory 
of God mirrored — God looking down into it, 
having his image fully reflected back upon the 
world, but the Bible is our looking-glass, revealing 
ourselves as well. A looking-glass, if it is a good 
one, is the only honest Avay for a man to see him- 
self physically. Some of us don't like it. Never- 
theless, we have to put up with it. Whether we 
like it or not, it is the only way for a man to see 
himself just as he looks. The photographer's plate 
does not do it. One day I sat, I don't know how 
long, in a chair manipulated by a very good pho- 
tographer, and I said, " Why are you taking up 
so much time ? Why don't you go on and take the 
picture? " 



84 THE PLAIN MAN 

He said, " I am trying to fix you up so that you 
will look as well as possible." 

When I saw the picture he made, I said, " If 
this is the result of all that maneuvering the real, 
sure-enough thing must be awful." 

When we come to look into the word of God 
as the mirror to reflect ourselves, there is no- 
body there to fix us up. There is no tilting of 
the head at the proper angle and putting the chin 
down; it is just the naked revelation of the man 
as he is. It is just the mirror of God. That is the 
reason why so many people are driven from it. I 
have been spoken to by more than one person who 
said, " The Bible is not to me what it seems to be 
to you, for I cannot read it. It cuts me to the 
quick." If the real secret of so much failure to 
study the Bible and read it were known, we would 
be amazed to find that so many people have been 
led, through their own desire to escape the pene- 
tration and the pricking of their own consciences, 
to leave off reading the word of God. 

I shall never forget some years ago there was 
an awful murder committed. A young woman 
was killed, and a young man disappeared at the 
same time, so he was suspected of being the mur- 
derer, but he could not be found. Finally, so con- 



ANDHISBIBLE 85 

scious was he of the extent of his crime, and so 
conscience-smitten, that he came all the way back 
to that city and went wandering out in the dark- 
ness in the night and knelt upon the spot where 
he had taken the girl's life. While he knelt there 
he was discovered, and was soon placed in jail 
and soon after came his trial. As he stood before 
the jury he confessed his crime. I was in the city 
at the time, and got permission to have a talk with 
him, and I carried with me a Bible. He had been 
raised a Roman Catholic, and had not, therefore, 
read the Bible, and knew nothing of it. He 
thanked me for bringing him the Bible. A few 
days later I went to see him again, and I saw the 
Bible lying over in the corner. I said, " Have you 
read your Bible? " 

" Don't talk to me about that book," he said. 
" I have been trying to get them to take it out of 
here. I want you to take it out. You brought 
it in." 

I said, " What is the matter with it ? That 
book points to your only hope." 

Said he, " If that is my only hope, then I am 
gone. The very sight of that book makes me 
shudder. When I open it every page that I read 
tells me of my sin; and if that is my hope, 



86 THE PLAIN MAN 

then I am a man without hope. Take it out 
of here." 

That man's story is only the story of hundreds 
of thousands of men whose consciences have 
been seared so long, until they have come upon 
the Bible and have seen in it a revelation of them- 
selves as they are before God and as they are be- 
fore the world. 

Our Spiritual X-ray 

But God's word is not only our mirror, it is 
more than that. It is the spiritual X-ray. Heb. 
4:12 says, " The word of God is living, and ac- 
tive, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, 
of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern 
the thoughts and intents of the heart." Do you 
know what the X-ray is? It is one of the most 
wonderful instruments that has ever been in- 
vented. It is an electrical machine that so in- 
tensifies light that it shines through the body, 
every part of it, photographing on the other side 
every single abnormality that it finds within the 
body. All foreign matter that is abnormal to the 
body can be photographed by this X-ray light. 

A doctor friend of mine called me one day into 



ANDHISBIBLE 87 

his office and showed me a photograph of the 
spinal cord of a man I knew well, whose lower ex- 
tremities had been paralyzed for a number of 
years, and who had been dragging his limbs about 
all that time. My friend said, " Here is a dis- 
covery that is worth everything to that man." As I 
looked down this spinal column, I saw something 
sticking into it, and was told that it was the point 
of a fine needle which that man had perhaps re- 
ceived when he was a child ; maybe by the careless- 
ness of a nurse. In some way he had fallen upon 
the needle and it had been broken off, and this fine 
point had bored its way down into the spinal cord, 
and was there irritating it all through the years of 
his early life, until finally there was almost per- 
fect paralysis in the lower extremities. 

You know what the treatment was : just to go 
with a knife to that spinal cord ; then, with a pair 
of forceps, to get hold of that tiny bit of steel and 
take it out. The X-ray shining through the body, 
through the organs, up against the bone, de- 
tected the foreign substance that was doing the 
mischief. 

It seems to me that I never read a clearer de- 
scription of the X-ray than the one the writer 
of the letter to the Hebrews gives us in this verse, 



88 THEPLAINMAN 

" The word of God is living, and active, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing 
even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both 
joints and marrow, and quick to discern the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." There is 
God's X-ray. It is the Bible. It is his holy book 
into which he has poured the electrifying fluid of 
his Holy Spirit to preserve it. When it is charged 
by the faith of the man who takes it, it shines 
in and through him and unveils the very secret 
of his inner life. Nothing else in the world 
does that. 

Some time ago a young man, supposed to be a 
splendid young fellow, exemplary and moral, was 
lying on his deathbed. At the foot of his bed, 
hanging upon the wall, was the picture of a beauti- 
ful woman. He had told his mother that she was 
his sweetheart, and that he was to be married to 
her. Somehow, that marriage had been post- 
poned again and again. The dear old mother 
never thought of disbelieving him. One day, as he 
was lying there near to death's door, his mother 
came in and found him quivering with emotion, 
with tears raining upon his cheeks, and he said, 
" Mother, turn that picture around. Hide that 
face from me." 



ANDHISBIBLE 89 

She said, " Why do you want me to hide the 
face of your sweetheart ? " 

" She is not my sweetheart," he said; " she has 
been my ruin. Hide her face. 1 cannot look at 
it any longer." 

Nothing but God's Holy Spirit, through the 
word of God which he had been reading, could 
have caused that man to turn to the wall that face 
which had damned his life. It is an awful thing, 
yet it is necessary that we face these things before 
we come to die, and go to stand before the judg- 
ment bar of God at last with a conscience that 
is saturated and seared with sin, when it is too 
late for blood and grace to wash it away; when 
it is too late to get peace and pardon. What 
men need is to come and place themselves before 
this burning, scorching, flashing light of the 
Spirit, and let it reveal to us the secret thoughts 
and sins that lie in the chambers of our souls. 

Oar Lamp and Light 

Our last point is that it is a lamp and a light 
for the guidance of our feet. David, in Ps. 119 : 
105, says : 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
And light unto my path. 



90 THE PLAIN MAN 

Picture a man standing before the looking- 
glass of God!s word, and having full revelation 
made of his external life as the world sees it, but 
as, perhaps, he had never seen it before. That 
w^ould be awful; but it is a great deal worse 
when we remember that in addition to the fact 
that the Bible reveals to one himself as the world 
sees him, it reveals to him himself as God sees 
him. It shines in and through his soul and 
unearths that which perhaps he thought was 
hidden. It would be a bad picture to leave a 
man hopeless like that. I thank God for this 
other step: 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
And light unto my path, 

for the guidance of the soul and life out of this 
state into the light of God. 

Some years ago there was a man who kept a 
saloon near my church. He was one of the worst 
men that this world ever saw. He had damned 
more men, wTecked more homes, broken more 
mothers' hearts, starved more children than al- 
most any man that I know. He was especially 
hurtful to my community, and I made up my mind 
that when he appeared before our city council 



ANDHISBIBLE 91 

to have his license renewed that I would appear 
before them and we would have a tussle over that 
business, and, if possible, I would defeat him. So 
one day one of my members said to me, *' Do you 
know this man is to appear for his license re- 
newal ? " 

I said, " I will be on -hand." 

It got noised abroad that I would be there to 
fight the granting of the license, and when the 
time came the court was full of people, mostly on 
his side. The subject came up, and I asked per- 
mission of the mayor and council to speak. Con- 
sent was given and I walked within the rail, 
and there, in front of me, almost close enough to 
touch, was this man with his application for li- 
cense. I did the best I could to show up the 
character of the man ; he had a character that was 
too black and too hideous and too awful to be 
allowed to sell that stuff in the back corridors of 
perdition. That was just what I said about him, 
and he did not like it; and I know that people 
sometimes have a suggestive way of saying when 
they don't like a thing and backing it up with 
something that is more expressive. I sat down 
and the license committee made its report, and 
then they took a vote and, much to my surprise 



92 THE PLAIN MAN 

and gratification, they refused to grant that man a 
license, thus winding up his business and putting 
him out of a job. 

I immediately felt that it was necessary for me 
to go home. I had not gone very far when I met 
a man who knew about this business, and he said, 
" I want to make a suggestion. You go another 
way home from your usual way, for I have just 
heard that man talking to some friends of his, 
and he says that he is going to wear you into a 
frazzle and then wear the frazzle out." 

" No, he won't," said I ; " I am not going home 
that way." 

A few days after that I was going to my study, 
which was in the church, and I met another friend 
who said, " My advice is that you had better seek 
another way of coming to the church, for this 
man, if he overtakes you, might do you some se- 
rious hurt; he might kill you." 

And so it went on for several days, until finally 
one morning I went into my study, and there sat 
that man. I was in a good humor that morning, 
going along whistling and having a good time 
with myself. It was a cold, crisp, beautiful 
morning, and it made me feel good; but when 
I walked in and saw this great, strapping six-foot 



ANDHIS'BIBLE 93 

fellow there I didn't feel so good. I said, " Good 
morning." 

" Good morning," he said. 

" Beautiful morning," I said. 

" Yes, it is very pretty," he said. 

" Very cold," I said. 

" Not cold in here." 

I said, " I am glad it is comfortable." 

Then I sat down and waited for him to speak. 
After a while he said, " Doctor Broughton, I sup- 
pose you have heard what I have been saying 
that I was going to do for you? " 

" Yes." 

" Well, that is what I have come here to talk 
about." 

I was very anxious to talk. I had no doubt 
that I was going to receive what he had promised, 
and I didn't mind putting it off awhile with talk. 

He said, " Doctor Broughton, you said some 
pretty hard things about me." 

I said, " Yes, I did. I said some hard things 
about you, but I was not mad. I was stating what 
I honestly believed, and I was stating it because 
of what you had led me to observe. It was an 
appeal I made on behalf of helpless, heartach- 
ing mothers, weak fathers, and their boys." 



94 THE PLAIN MAN 

Then I said, " I want to say to you, if you want 
to put your threats into execution, here I am. I 
have done my duty before God, and I have noth- 
ing to fear and no favors to ask." 

Then he said, " I have not come for that. It is 
far from my mind to-day. I have come in an en- 
tirely different spirit. If I had seen you a week 
ago, perhaps I would have killed you. But now 
I have come to talk with you and to ask you some 
questions." 

Then tears came into his eyes, and he said, 
" You don't know that my old father was one of 
the best men that ever lived. You don't know 
that my old mother died of a broken heart be- 
cause of my sin. I don't know why, but last 
night I was rummaging around in my desk for 
some business papers, and I came upon a letter she 
wrote me not long before she died, and that is 
responsible for my being here. This is what she 
wrote, * My dear boy, " though your sins be as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." ' 
When I saw those words, those Scripture words 
that I had forgotten, my heart sank within me 
and I had no rest. I have come to ask you if 
you think God will take a poor old sinner like me. 



AND HIS BIBLE 95 

If you think he will, would you mind getting 
down and asking him to do it to-day? " 

The following Wednesday evening in my bap- 
tistery I baptized that man and two others whom 
he had brought. No other words taken from any 
other book in the world would have brought about 
that change in a man. 

Thank God for the Bible. 



96 THE PLAIN MAN 



VIII 
HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE 

THIS is a day of training in every station 
of life. In Chicago I was told of a 
school, with several hundred pupils, 
where book agents were trained, and it 
was said to be a profitable institution. I have no 
doubt that it is. I told the gentleman who was 
telling me about it that I felt sure that somewhere 
in the world the book-agent fraternity was being 
trained, for they all had the same augur and all 
turned it the same way when they call on me. But 
it really is a great thing to train men for any 
line of work. It is great both for the man who 
engages in it, and also for the cause he repre- 
sents. I once lived next door to a woman who 
spent her afternoons in the back yard training a 
little fuzzy pup. Her purpose was to teach him 
to do all kinds of stunts. To my certain knowl- 
edge she spent two or three times as much time 
training that pup as she did her children. But it 



ANDHISBIBLE 97 

is all right to train even the pups — provided the 
pup does not take up time that should be spent in 
something else. 

Bible Training 

But let us not leave out the Bible in our train- 
ing. That is the most important of all, and if 
overlooked nothing will be able to take its place. 

Bible training is especially necessary in our 
country. We are a religious people — very re- 
ligious at that ; we would fight and die for our re- 
ligion, but we are not instructed. The knowledge 
of the Bible in this country is very shallow and 
superficial. It is really alarming. I was at a 
Bible conference once where a teacher asked how 
many people in the audience had read through the 
book of Hezekiah, and a half-dozen hands went 
up. They were not ignorant people, either; nor 
were they disposed to tell a falsehood. They had 
probably read through the whole Bible, but they 
had not carefully read it. They had not read it 
carefully enough to know that there was no such 
book as the book of Hezekiah. 

How little we know, after all, about our Bibles ! 
It is seen everywhere in church work. It is seen 
especially in the work of our Sunday-schools. 



98 THE PLAIN MAN 

The average Sunday-school teaching is very poor. 
It is better, of course, than no teaching at all, but 
it is indeed poor. The average teacher, to begin 
with, knows very little to teach. He or she may 
have a smattering knowledge of the little chopped- 
up lesson which is given in the lesson paper of the 
Sunday-school, but even that knowledge is very 
superficial. There is lacking a knowledge of the 
Bible itself, of its great doctrines, and its great 
arrangement of truth. This is clearly lacking in 
the majority of the work done in our Sunday- 
schools. 

And what is worse, there seems to be little 
special desire to improve at this point. Our Sun- 
day-school people generally seem not to care for 
any deeper and more comprehensive grasp of the 
Bible. They will accept service as teachers, which 
lays upon them obligations heavy enough to bend 
an angel, and yet, seemingly, they care nothing 
about the preparation necessary for such a great 
work. It is almost impossible, even under the 
most favorable circumstances, to get Christian 
people, even those engaged in Christian work, to 
a real systematic and thorough study of the Bible. 
I know it is a sad commentary. I feel ashamed to 
have to say it, but it is true. 



AND HIS BIBLE 99 

People will raise a great howl when the Bible 
is assailed, but they never seem to think that 
there is any need for them to establish themselves 
in its teaching that they may be prepared to 
defend it. 

The lack of a knowledge of the Bible is also seen 
in our personal workers' meetings, where people 
are being instructed concerning the plan of salva- 
tion. I am sure that some of the flimsiest reason- 
ing that ever was done in any cause is done in 
our inquiry meetings; oftentimes by those who 
are trying to lead seekers into the way of salvation. 
Comparatively speaking, there are very, very few 
Christian people who can intelligently instruct a 
seeker in the way of salvation. This is because of 
the lack of Bible study. It has simply been im- 
possible to get anything like a representative 
number of people, professing to be Christians, 
to realize the need of equipping themselves with 
a knowledge of the great truths of the Bible, in 
order that they may be successful in their work 
for Christ. 

The Times Changed 

The time has come when mere affirmation about 
the Bible will not do. It is not enough now for us 



100 THE PLAIN MAN 

to stand up and declare that the Bible is the word 
of God. What we have to do to-day is to show 
our faith by our works; and if the Bible is the 
word of God, and we believe it, we are going to 
know it as well as we can. 

Some time ago I read this story. A young man 
who had not been raised by his parents, and had 
not even known his father's name, was told one 
day that his father had died and had left a will 
which provided a large estate for him, and he had 
also left a letter which was to be delivered to 
him, telling him of his father and why he had 
never seen him. The boy's interest was so 
aroused, and he became so restless, that he nearly 
lost his mind before the letter reached him. And 
this was perfectly natural. I feel sure that under 
such circumstances such a message would have the 
same effect on me. 

In the Bible we have a letter from our Father, 
and attached to it is his will for his children. We 
believe in this will ; we believe it is to be found in 
the Bible. At least we say we do. Our testimony 
to the world is that this is the testimony of our 
Father in heaven. We believe that in it we learn 
of the inheritance that is ours, and yet how care- 
less we are about it. If we really believe that, we 



AND HIS BIBLE 101 

should show it by our efforts not only to possess 
a Bible, but to know it. And I believe that we will 
do this if we are really the children of God. 
There needs to be a great revival in this country 
of Bible study. Our Christian people must be 
taught the Bible. They must see just the need 
of such teaching. They will never accept it until 
they see the need of it. 

Methods of Bible Study 

But what of the methods of Bible study ? Sup- 
pose one should really desire to know the Bible, 
what can I say to be of help? And I thank God 
that there are such people ; there is an awakening 
along this line as never before. 

First of all, I would insist upon the student of 
the Bible having a method — for nothing can be 
accomplished without one. God himself worked 
upon a method when he made the world, and he 
works upon one in maintaining the world. Every- 
thing that God ever did was according to method, 
and so in studying the Bible there must be some 
fixed plan, or else we will never learn what we 
study. There must be a method if our study is 
to bring blessing and profit. I will not say what 
it is to be. However, I will suggest a few 



102 THE PLAIN MAN 

methods that have been helpful to me and to 
others. In my own work I follow first one 
method and then another. 

As a Whole 

First, I will mention the study of the Bible as 
a whole. This is very essential. Too much of 
our work is of the hop-and-skip character. We 
will never know the Bible that way. To know it 
truly we must study it first as a great whole — 
see its origin, its author, its arrangement, how it 
is written, and its general contents. This is very 
necessary. It is indispensably necessary if we 
would know the Bible. 

Note the unity of the Bible. Sixty-six books 
make up both the Old and the New Testaments. 
The Bible therefore is a great divine library, and 
there is one key that unlocks the whole of it, and 
that key is Christ. Going through from Genesis 
to Revelation we find Christ the key to every book 
that makes up this divine library. 

" From Genesis to Deuteronomy we have the 
revelation. 

" From Joshua to Esther we have preparation. 

" From Job to Songs of Solomon we have as- 
piration. 



AND HIS BIBLE 103 

" From Isaiah to Malachi, expectation. 

"From Matthew to John, manifestation. 

" From Acts to the Epistles, reahzation. 

" The book of Revelation, the culmination.'* 

Following some such method as this in the 
study of the Bible, as a whole, we will soon be- 
come gripped with the fact that there is a Master 
Mind — yea, a divine Mind — back of it all, and 
that great fact, taking fast hold of us, will make 
the Bible stand out in a new light. 

Book Stud^ 

Take the Bible by books. This is an exceed- 
ingly interesting as well as important method of 
study. Every book in the Bible has its specific 
lesson to teach ; and while it may teach a great 
many other lessons, the central truth is easily ob- 
tained and traced through the book. 

Take, for example, the book of Genesis. Here 
the main purpose is to trace the beginnings of 
things. For example, we have the beginning of 
the world, of man, of woman, of the Sabbath, of 
marriage, of sin, of the promise, of prophecy, of 
sacrifice, of nations, of Israel. 

When these are all traced and fixed firmly in 
mind, the student can afford to turn aside and take 



104 THE PLAIN MAN 

up the other Hnes of teaching in the book. And 
the rule appHed to the book of Genesis will apply 
to any of the books of the Bible. Read the book 
through to learn its specific message, and then take 
all of the other phases of teaching into accotint. 
One will be surprised to find how his grasp of 
meaning will increase by this method. 

The Bible by Characters 

This is also a very interesting method of Bible 
study. Take, for example, the most conspicuous 
mothers of the Bible — Eve, Sarah, Hannah, Ra- 
hab. Take the most conspicuous lovemakers of 
the Bible — Rebeccah, Rachel, Ruth, and Abigail. 
Take the most conspicuous wives of the Bible — 
the wife of Enoch, Deborah, Jezebel, and Esther. 
This W'ill be a very profitable literary exercise, 
especially for our women, if in their social gather- 
ings and club meetings they would take up such 
characters as these and studv them. The trouble 
is, however, that other books, which are not half 
so interesting, are always taken in preference. 

The same kind of biographic study will apply 
to the men of the Bible. Take the most conspicu- 
ous men of the Bible in different lines and group 
them together and study them. Group them, for 



ANDHISBIBLE 105 

example, under kings, statesmen, judges, war- 
riors, husbands, prophets, and apostles. 

Chapter Stud^ 

The study of the Bible by chapters is also very 
helpful. A good way is to name the various chap- 
ters of the Bible as they are read and classify 
them. For example, the penitent chapter. Psalm 
fifty-one; the new life chapter, John three; the 
liberty chapter, Romans eight; the crucifixion 
chapter, John nineteen ; the love chapter. First Co- 
rinthians thirteen ; the comfort chapter, John four- 
teen ; and so on with all the chapters. Whenever 
they are studied and properly classified let them be 
named, and when this is done it will be found to 
be of great help in the use of the Bible. 

By Doctrinal Topics 

Still another method is by doctrines and topics. 
This is one of the most helpful phases of Bible 
study. Take, for example, the Holy Trinity — God 
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. 
Run through the Bible and see what it says con- 
cerning the Trinity. Then take each person of the 
Trinity, and see what it says about them individ- 
ually. In this way we will soon have a proper con- 



106 THE PLAIN MAN 

ception of this great teaching. Any other sub- 
ject in the Bible can be treated the same way. 
Simply go through the Bible and see what is said 
about it. Take, for instance, sin, salvation, the 
blood, faith, punishment, reward, heaven, hell. 
Everything that the Bible treats of can be profit- 
ably studied in this way. 

But perhaps this is enough on the subject of 
methods. Each of us, after all, will have to work 
out his own method. What I want to insist upon 
is that some method be followed. But it is not 
enough to have a method. We must have all the 
best helps that we can get to throw light upon our 
work. I would have all the good, helpful side- 
lights that are possible. But remember that there 
is nothing that will interpret the Bible like the 
Bible itself when properly studied. 

The Hol^ Spirit 

But the greatest aid of all in studying the Bible 
is to have the aid of the Holy Spirit. It is abso- 
lutely impossible for a man not taught of the Holy 
Spirit to know the meaning of the word of God. 
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthian 
Christians, declares, '' The natural man receiveth 
not the spiritual things of the Spirit of God, for 



ANDHISBIBLE 107 

they are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned." 

This is one reason why there is so much skep- 
tical teaching concerning the Bible to-day. Men 
are doing it who are not Spirit-taught. They are 
judging the Bible in the light of the knowledge of 
this world, and the Bible can never be understood 
in that way. All the Hebrew, and all the Greek, 
and all the other languages of the world, with all 
the sciences combined, cannot know the Bible. It 
is a Spirit-given book, and to know it the Spirit 
himself must reveal it. 

Many years ago I visited Luray Cave, in Vir- 
ginia. It was before the electric lights were put 
in. When we started in the guide gave us each a 
candle, that being the only light we had. After 
having gone down a considerable distance and 
getting damp and cold, I began to inquire for the 
stalactites and the stalagmites that I had heard 
so much about. The guide told me to look around 
and I would see them in abundance. I did so, and 
sure enough I saw them, but I was greatly disap- 
pointed. They were not at all what I had ex- 
pected to see. 

Finally I began to ask to go back, but the guide 



108 THE PLAIN MAN 

said that he was not allowed to go back. He must 
go through before returning. After a while we 
came to a place which is called the great audience 
chamber. My candle was burning very low and 
I was getting uneasy. " Here," said the guide, *' is 
the great audience chamber. Lift up your lights 
and you will see the most beautiful formations 
that you have ever seen in your life." I did as he 
directed and saw some very pretty things, but they 
were not what I had expected to find, and I was 
very much disappointed, and so expressed myself 
to my companions. 

But I noticed that the guide was unwinding 
something that looked like a spool of ribbon. 
When he had finished he asked me to let him light 
it with my candle. I did so, and immediately 
there flashed out the most beautifully brilliant 
light that I ever saw. What he held was a roll of 
magnesium ribbon, and it gave forth that most 
beautiful magnesium light, rivaling the sun in 
brilliance. When the light flashed I dropped my 
candle and began to look around me. What a 
beautiful sight it was ! Yonder were the faces of 
the patriarchs; yonder were faces of angels. In 
another place were horses and chariots and hun- 
dreds of other things that I do not now remember. 



ANDHISBIBLE 109 

While I was gazing with all my might, a young 
lady of our party, who knew the place well, 
slipped behind us, and with an iron pin began 
striking the stalactites that hung over us, playing 
'' Home, Sweet Home." 

When I went back to my hotel that night God 
spoke to me. I was to preach the next day a col- 
lege-commencement sermon, and as I knelt down 
in my room to pray, God seemed to say to me, 
" Your equipment for Bible study has not been 
the proper one. Your text for to-morrow you 
have misinterpreted. You have the interpreta- 
tion of the books; it is not my interpretation. 
You have been relying upon your little flickering 
candle-light of reason and human knowledge. I 
want to give you the light of the Holy Ghost to 
shine upon these Bible truths; I want them to 
shine out in all of their real beauty. You have 
seen them in the light of human wisdom. They 
will flash upon you with a new glory when illu- 
minated by the light of the Holy, Ghost." There 
came upon that very text that I had chosen to 
preach from the next day a new light, and I laid 
my prepared sermon down, and in the light of that 
spirit I preached an entirely different one. 

Would you know your Bible ? Would you have 



110 THE PLAIN MAN 

an insight into its beauty — its real beauty ? Would 
you see its great truths as you have never seen 
them before? Would you have them grip you 
with a new grip? Then take your wisdom, the 
wisdom of this world, and everything else you 
have, to God the Holy Ghost, and ask him to 
touch what you have with what he has and there 
will come upon you and the Bible a new light and 
a new power. 



AND HIS BIBLE 111 



IX 



HOW TO FORM AND CONDUCT A 
POPULAR BIBLE CLASS 

THERE is at present a great movement, in 
many sections of the country, in the di- 
rection of Bible teaching, and it has been 
my privilege to look in upon much of this 
work. Of course, we have been doing what we 
could in the direction of Bible teaching in the 
Sunday-schools, but this has not been satisfactory. 
The time allotted for the work, and the circum- 
stances under which it has been done, is not suffi- 
cient to inculcate proper Bible knowledge. I do 
not say this as a criticism of the Sunday-school. 
It has done the best it could. Its place is an im- 
portant one. Every effort possible should be put 
forth to strengthen it, but the Sunday-school can 
never do the Bible teaching that is necessary, nor 
can it be done by the preacher who simply fills his 
pulpit Sundays. Preaching is not teaching. It 
may combine teaching, but it cannot do proper 



112 THE PLAIN MAN 

teaching because it has to address itself to condi- 
tions and circumstances in the Hfe of the people; 
besides it has to regard the character of the 
audience. 

The present movement for Bible teaching rec- 
ognizes the limitations of the pulpit and the 
Sunday-school, and is striving in another way 
to supplement the work of the pulpit and the 
Sunday-school by a service set apart distinctly 
for Bible teaching. 

I should say that Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, of 
London, is the most conspicuous character in this 
new movement. When he assumed the pastorate 
oi the Westminster Chapel, a few years ago, he 
did it with the distinct understanding that the 
church would back him in operating a Friday- 
night Bible-school, with himself as teacher. His 
success in that work has been phenomenal. For 
several years he has conducted this school, teach- 
ing simply the Bible ; not having to do with any- 
thing specially that is said about it, but simply 
sticking to the word itself, giving the people a sys- 
tematic line of knowledge concerning it. The 
class that greets him on Friday nights is, without 
doubt, the largest regular Bible class ever taught. 
It has been my privilege to give two courses of 



AND HIS BIBLE 113 

lectures to this Bible class, covering a period of 
two months each, and I therefore am able to speak 
with some definiteness concerning the work. It is 
a work that has had a definite local influence and 
far-reaching results beyond its immediate area. 

Following Doctor Morgan, hundreds of other 
classes or schools of this character have been 
formed throughout Great Britain, with the result 
that a new love of the Bible and a greater depth of 
spiritual life is oberved everywhere. I am glad 
to see that the movement is taking shape in our 
own country. From every direction there comes 
tidings of beginnings in this direction that are 
encouraging. 

In my own church we have been conducting 
such a school for several years. We have found 
that it is not easy to get people in our country to 
study the Bible. To begin with, it is not easy to 
get them to realize that it is necessary to know the 
Bible. And it is still harder to get them to real- 
ize that they do not already know the Bible. But 
we have succeeded, I think, all things considered, 
marvelously well. We have now a permanently 
conducted Friday-night Bible-school, with the 
pastor as the lecturer, and the effect of it is felt in 
every department of our church work. I believe, 

H 



114 THE PLAIN MAN 

verily, that it is the most important work con- 
nected with the church. 

Some Suggestions 

Many people, knowing my interest in this kind 
of work, are writing me constantly for sugges- 
tions about the formation and conduct of such a 
work, and hence I am making these suggestions. 

1. I should say, by all means, undertake it. If 
the pastor cannot do it, then some member of the 
church ought to undertake it ; but woe be unto the 
pastor who does not keep himself in touch with 
such a movement if it is in his church. He will 
soon find that he is greatly lacking in the ability 
to interest those who are giving themselves to sys- 
tematic Bible study. 

2. When once it is decided definitely to under- 
take it, set apart some night in the week as a night 
sacred to this class. Let nothing else come in 
the way. Let the class always be met by the 
teacher and, if for any providential reason he 
cannot be present, let some other thoroughly 
competent teacher fill his place. The students 
must be led to believe that they will always be 
met, and that what is presented to them will be 
interesting. 



AND HIS BIBLE 115 

3. The class should be conducted in the best 
part of the church. There should be a large black- 
board, large enough for the whole outline of the 
lesson to be put upon it. 

4. The teacher should follow a systematic line 
of work. He should decide upon the book, the 
subject, or section to be studied ; a syllabus should 
be gotten out, giving the general analysis of the 
course, with the length of time that it will take to 
complete it. I think, in the average church, the 
course should be planned to cover at least six 
months. These syllabi should be thoroughly dis- 
tributed in the congregation, and due advertise- 
ment given of the beginning of the work. Then 
the teacher or lecturer should thoroughly prepare 
himself for every lecture. 

5. Before the hour for the lecture to be given 
arrives, the analysis for the evening should be put 
on the board. 

6. When the hour arrives the teacher or lec- 
turer must proceed in a thoroughly devotional 
and businesslike way to the consideration of what 
is before him. Of course, the usual devotional 
exercises will be held and a collection taken for 
the general expenses of the school. The teacher 
will then explain his analysis on the blackboard 



116 THE PLAIN MAN 

and proceed with the story of the lesson, winding 
up with such practical suggestions as he had de- 
duced from the study. 

These are simply hints at the method for the 
conduct of such work. Of course, they are sub- 
ject to variations according to circumstances. I 
would insist, however, that this work cannot be 
done in connection with the regular church prayer 
meeting. If the Bible-school idea is to grip the 
church and community, it must be made a distinct 
department. The prayer meeting can be merged 
into the Bible-school, but the Bible-school cannot 
be merged into the prayer meeting. The fact is, 
I think, in the average church it would be far bet- 
ter to dispense with the old prayer-meeting idea 
and enter upon the Bible-school idea; for in con- 
nection with it there is also prayer, the more the 
better. What our people need is to know the 
Bible, and prayer to them will become normal. I 
have found this to be true in my own work. Just 
in proportion to the extent that we get men to 
study the Bible do we get them to pray. 

I most heartily commend from observation and 
experience the Bible-school movement. 



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